Enhancement of dye-sensitized solar cell efficiency using carbon nanotube/TiO2 nanocomposite thin films fabricated at various annealing temperatures

Abstract

To increase energy conversion efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were added to TiO2 gel-like solution. Modified acid-catalyzed sol-gel method was used with the doctor blade coating technique to obtain thin films of CNT/TiO2 nanocomposite photoanode. CNT/TiO2 paste was applied onto the conductive glass to generate a 0.25 cm2 active area which was later annealed at 350°C, 450°C, and 550°C for 60 min. Characterization of the CNT/TiO2 paste was performed using x-ray diffraction. Results showed that the crystalline phase of the particles was anatase. The micrograph obtained using field emission scanning electron microscopy demonstrated that the pastes are highly porous. Brunauer-Emmett-Teller analysis was performed to determine the CNT/TiO2 surface area and particle size. The DSSC with the CNT/TiO2 photoanodes annealed at 550°C showed the highest incident photon-to-charge carrier efficiency value of 0.95% compared with the DSSCs with photoanodes annealed at 350°C and 450°C (0.70% and 0.83%, respectively). The observed efficiencies of the DSSCs with CNT/TiO2 photoanode annealed at the three different temperatures were 2.62%, 2.65%, and 3.13%. The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy analysis showed that the DSSCs with photoanodes developed using the highest annealing temperature (550°C) have higher electron lifetime of 70.423 ms and lower effective recombination rate of 1.42 × 10−2 s−1, thereby improving the performance of CNT/TiO2 DSSCs.