Journal
ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES
Volume 4, Issue 6, Pages 3308-3315Publisher
AMER CHEMICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1021/am3007164
Keywords
electrospray; hierarchical structured TiO2; flexible dye sensitized solar cells; low temperature process; compression treatment; chemical sintering
Funding
- KIST Institutional Programs [2E22831, 2K01970]
- World Class University Programs (Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Korea (MEST)) [R32-2010-000-10217]
- Basic Research Program (Korea Research Foundation) [RIAM 041-2004-I-D00224]
- Fundamental R&D Program for Core Technology of Materials (MOCIE) [RIAM 0417-20100043]
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Hierarchically structured TiO2 (HS-TiO2) was prepared on a flexible ITO-PEN (polyethylene naphthalate) substrate via electrospray deposition using a commercially available TiO2 nanocrystalline powder in order to fabricate flexible DSSCs under low-temperature (<150 degrees C) conditions. The cell efficiency increased when using flexible ITO-PEN substrates post-treated by either a mechanical compression treatment or a chemical sintering treatment using titanium n-tetrabutoxide (TTB). The mechanical compression treatment reduced the surface area and porosity of the HS-TiO2; however, this treatment improved the interparticle connectivity and physical adhesion between the HS-TiO2 and ITO-PEN substrate, which increased the photocurrent density of the as-pressed HS-TiO2 cells. The electron diffusion coefficients of the as-pressed HS-TiO2 improved upon compression treatment, whereas the recombination lifetimes remained unchanged. An additional chemical sintering post-treatment involving TTB was tested for its effects on DSSC efficiency. The freshly coated TiO2 submitted to TTB hydrolysis in water at 100 degrees C yielded an anatase phase. TTB treatment of the HS-TiO2 cell after compression treatment yielded faster electron diffusion, providing an efficiency of 5.57% under 100 mW cm(-2), AM 1.5 global illumination.
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