Hydrothermal Synthesis of High‐Surface‐Area Anatase TiO2 Nanoparticles for Enhancing the Photovoltaic Performance of Solar Cells

Abstract

AbstractTo develop environmentally friendly, inexpensive, and high‐quality materials for photo‐electrodes to be used in dye‐sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), nanocrystalline TiO2 with an anatase phase and a high surface area was successfully synthesized through a hydrothermal process. The as‐prepared TiO2 was characterized by high‐resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR‐TEM), field emission scanning electron microscope (FE‐SEM), X‐ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, and the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) equation. Furthermore, we present a systematic study of its photovoltaic properties based on an as‐prepared TiO2 quasi solid‐state DSSC device. The quasi solid‐state DSSC was compared with a DSSC made with commercial P25. The results demonstrated that electrodes based on anatase TiO2 nanoparticles (NPs) with high surface area are beneficial to improving the dye absorption and electron transport properties. These NPs are also highly efficient in terms of light harvesting and charge collection, which leads to the enhancement of the conversion efficiency. As expected, the results showed that the DSSCs employing the oligo‐polyethylene glycol dimethylether (PEGDME) electrolyte have long‐term stability.