Mesoporous anatase single crystals for efficient Co(2+/3+)-based dye-sensitized solar cells

Highly crystalline mesoporous architectures are very promising for a number of applications due to their unique properties arising from their excellent electronic connectivity, structural coherence, mass-transport-efficient channels, and large surface area/pore volume. Herein, we report, for the first time, a facile synthesis approach to mesoporous anatase single crystals (MASCs) with special polyhedral pores (similar to 7 nm). This architecture is employed to construct MK-2-sensitized solar cells using a cobalt redox shuttle, with a maximum efficiency of 8.7% achieved, which is significantly higher than for analogous devices based on commercial Dyesol TiO2 (6.3%). It is worth emphasizing that not only applications in solar cells, but also in sensing, drug delivery, and photocatalysis may benefit from these innovative MASCs. Crown Copyright (C) 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.