Preparation, characterization and application of titania nanotube arrays in dye-sensitized solar cells

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) are a relatively low cost solar cell technology with an overall light-to electricity conversion efficiency of over 10%. Typically, a ~10 μm thickness of TiO₂ nanocrystalline film was used in DSSC devices for the purpose of electron collection and transportation. In this work, the TiO₂ nanotube array (TNTA) covered with TiO₂ nanoparticles (TNP) were successfully prepared by anodization of Ti foil followed by Ti-precursor treatment and annealing process. The TNTA-based DSSCs were fabricated for photovoltaic characterization studies. It was found that the post-treated TNTAs-TNP enhanced the photoconversion efficiency for ~26% over the DSSC fabricated by TNTAs, presumably due to both the increase of dye adsorption and electron transportation rate.