Efficient dye-sensitized solar cells based on surfactant-mediated TiO2 nanostructures

Abstract

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) based on TiO2 nanostructures have attracted much attention due to their high photoconversion efficiency. Here, we report the hydrothermal synthesis of surfactant-mediated TiO2 material to fabricate efficient DSSC. The influence of surfactants such as ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide, and sodium dodecyl sulfate on the photovoltaic performance of DSSC was studied. The FESEM images indicated that the vertically aligned TiO2 nanorods were uniformly grown on the fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) glass substrates. The sodium dodecyl sulfate-mediated TiO2 shows the formation of microflowers on the surface of vertically aligned nanorods. The effects of surfactant on the solar cell parameters, i.e. open-circuit potential, short-circuit current density, and photoconversion efficiency were studied. The significant improvement in photoconversion efficiency was observed to be 8.30% for the sodium dodecyl sulfate-mediated TiO2 photoanode.