Dye-sensitized solar cells based on TiO2 nanoparticles/nanobelts double-layered film with improved photovoltaic performance

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) were fabricated using double layers of nano-structured TiO2 films as photoanodes. Different anode architectures of double-layered TiO2 films were fabricated in order to study the structural effect of photoanodes on the solar cell efficiency. The performances of DSSCs based on composite photoanodes in the forms of TiO2 nanoparticles/nanobelts (TiO2P-B), TiO2 nanoparticles/nanoparticles (TiO2P-P), TiO2 nanobelts/nanobelts (TiO2B-B) double-layered electrodes with the same film thicknesses were studied in detail, and their corresponding efficiencies were 4.81%, 3.55% and 0.36%. The work shows that significant improvement of efficiency can be achieved through combined enhancement in optical scattering using the TiO2 nanobelts and high dye absorbing capacity of the TiO2 nanoparticles. (C) 2014 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.