One-pot synthesis of peacock-shaped TiO2 light scattering layer with TiO2 nanorods film for dye-sensitized solar cells

A titanium dioxide (TiO2) film, showing distinctive functions and morphology, was prepared using the hydrothermal method by controlling the ratio of HCl:CH3COOH in acidic medium. A one-dimensional (1-D) TiO2 nanorod (NR) film was synthesized with a length of 2 μm using a 1:2 ratio of HCl:CH3COOH, whereas a 1-D TiO2 NR film with peacock shaped TiO2 nanobundles as a light scattering layer (LSL) was acquired by employing a 2:1 ratio of HCl:CH3COOH. This LSL exhibited remarkable dual functions with respect to high light harvesting, which was attributable to the large surface area of the micrometer-sized TiO2 nanobundles, consisting of small-sized TiO2 NRs of 30–40 nm in diameter and a light scattering effect in the long wavelength region of 550–700 nm. Accordingly, the dual functions of the LSL resulted in a sharp increase in conversion efficiency (3.93%) that was about twice that (1.49%) of TiO2 NR film synthesized using a 1:2 ratio of HCl:CH3COOH. In particular, a considerably enhanced short-circuit photocurrent (Jsc) was mainly responsible for the resulting increase in overall efficiency with a moderate increase in fill factor and slightly reduced open-circuit voltage.