Enhanced current density of anatase TiO2 nanowire arrays by interface connection modulation in flexible quantum dot sensitized solar cells

Abstract

The stability and photovoltaic conversion efficiency are very important issues for the industry application of flexible solar cells, which have been seriously limited by the interface connection of basic photo-electrodes in solar cells. Here, one-dimensional TiO2 nanowire arrays films were employed as photo-electrodes of flexible solar cells, which have modulated interface connection of the photo-electrodes by introducing small size of nanoparticles and heating pressure process. The charge generation and separation properties of photo-electrodes have been influenced, which may be attributed by the changes on band energy of small size of nanoparticles in photo-electrodes. With the improvement on the interface connection in the photo-electrodes, the charge transfer property has been effectively improved, which have exhibited a higher current density value of the solar cells, achieving photovoltaic conversion efficiency enhancement from 2.55% to 3.90%. Moreover, there have no obvious changes on the photovoltaic conversion efficiency of these flexible QDSSCs solar cells under the curling condition.