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Titanium Dioxide Nanotubes Decorated with Nanoparticles for Dye Sensitized Solar Cells

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2011

Xuan Pan ,
Yong Zhao ,
Changhong Chen  and
Zhaoyang Fan
Xuan Pan
Affiliation:
Nano Tech Center and Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, United States.
Yong Zhao
Affiliation:
Nano Tech Center and Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, United States.
Changhong Chen
Affiliation:
Nano Tech Center and Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, United States. Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
Zhaoyang Fan
Affiliation:
Nano Tech Center and Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, United States.
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Abstract

The titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticle (NP) structure has higher surface area and dye loading value to increase photon absorption while the nanotube (NT) can suppress the random walk phenomena to enhance carrier collection. In this work, hydrothermal method was utilized to infiltrate the TiO2 nanotube array by TiO2 nanoparticles with the aim of combining the advantages of both nanostructures to improve dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) efficiency. Structure morphology, device performance, and electrochemical properties were investigated. SEM observation confirmed that around 10 nm TiO2 nanoparticles uniformly covered the NT wall. TiO2 NT samples at three different lengths: 8 μm, 13 μm and 20 μm, decorated with different amount of nanoparticles were studied to optimize the structure for light absorption and electron transport to achieve high solar conversion efficiency. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) was also employed to investigate the cells’ parameters: electron lifetime (τ), diffusion length (Ln) et al, to gain insight on the device performance. The incident photon conversion efficiency (IPCE) was also reported.

Keywords

energy generationnanostructuretransportation
Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 1303: Symposium Y – Nanomaterials Integration for Electronics, Energy and Sensing , 2011 , mrsf10-1303-y05-06
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2011

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