Abstract
Large-sized titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanotube arrays with an outer diameter of approximately 500 nm have been successfully synthesized by potentiostatic anodization at 180 V in a used electrolyte with the addition of 1.5 M lactic acid. It is found that the synthesized large-diameter TiO2 nanotube array shows a superior light scattering ability, which can be used as a light scattering layer to significantly enhance the efficiency of TiO2 nanoparticle-based dye-sensitized solar cells from 5.18% to 6.15%. The remarkable light scattering ability makes the large-diameter TiO2 nanotube array a promising candidate for light management in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs).
Highlights
Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have received considerable interest since 1991 [1] with the growing concern on sustainable and renewable energies
The highest power conversion efficiency (PCE) of DSSCs based on TiO2 nanoparticle mesoporous films has been reported [2], and to further improve the PCE, plenty of research has been carried out, such as the development of new dyes with broadband absorption [3,4], the increase of the sensitized surface area of the TiO2 film [5,6], and the use of a scattering layer for enhanced light harvesting [7,8,9,10,11,12,13]
We fabricated small-diameter TiO2 nanotube arrays (STNAs) with a diameter of approximately 120 nm, which were anodized at 60 V
Summary
Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have received considerable interest since 1991 [1] with the growing concern on sustainable and renewable energies. The highest power conversion efficiency (PCE) of DSSCs based on TiO2 nanoparticle mesoporous films has been reported [2], and to further improve the PCE, plenty of research has been carried out, such as the development of new dyes with broadband absorption [3,4], the increase of the sensitized surface area of the TiO2 film [5,6], and the use of a scattering layer for enhanced light harvesting [7,8,9,10,11,12,13]. TiO2 nanorods with a length of 180 to 250 nm have been used as scattering centers in DSSCs by Yoon et al [9].
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