Nanostructured TiO2 films for dye-sensitized solar cells prepared by sol-gel method.

TiO₂ films were prepared on glass substrates by sol-gel process for dye-sensitized solar cell application. TiO₂ sol was prepared by the hydrolysis/polycondensation. Titanium(IV) tetra isopropoxide (TTIP) was used as precursor and Nitric acid (HNO₃) was used as a catalyst for the peptization. The crystal structure and morphology of prepared materials were characterized by XRD, SEM. The observations confirmed the nanocrystalline nature of TiO₂. Reaction parameters, such as aging time, aging temperature, calcination time and calcination temperature were varied during the synthesis in order to get nanosize TiO₂ particles. The prepared TiO₂ particles was coated on FTO glass by screen printing technique. The prepared TiO₂ films were characterized by BET, UV-vis. The TiO₂ particles calcinated at low temperature were showed anatase phase, and they were grown rutile phase as the increase of calcination temperature. The size and structure of TiO₂ particle were adjusted to specific surface area. It was found that the conversion efficiency of DSSC was highly affected by the properties of TiO₂ particles.