Controllable synthesis of rutile TiO2 nanorod array, nanoflowers and microspheres directly on fluorine-doped tin oxide for dye-sensitised solar cells

TiO2 films with different morphology directly grown on fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) substrate were prepared via a facile hydrothermal method. Rutile TiO2 nanorod arrays, nanoflowers film and microspheres film were obtained by changing the volume ratios of HCl and CH3COOH in solvent with other conditions unchanged, as confirmed by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscope (TEM) and high-resolution TEM. Dye-sensitised solar cell (DSSC) assembled with the TiO2 microsphere films grown on FTO substrate as photoanode achieves an overall photoelectric conversion efficiency of 1.94% and a short-circuit current intensity of 5.12 mA cm(-2) owing to the rough surface, which is higher than those of nanorod array and nanoflower-based DSSCs. The photovoltaic performance of rutile TiO2 film-based DSSCs is related to the morphology of the film.