Performance of dye-sensitized solar cell based on nanocrystals TiO2 film prepared with mixed template method

Highly efficient dye-sensitized solar cells were produced using high-crystalline TiO2 nanoparticles as a thin-film semiconductor prepared with a mixed template of copolymer F127 (poly(ethylene oxide)(106)-poly(propylene oxide)(70)-poly(ethylene oxide)(106)) and surfactant CTAB (cetyltrimethylammonium bromide) which allows access to larger surface area, smaller size and higher crystallinity TiO2 particles. The light-to-electricity conversion of the TiO2 film composed of nanocrystals with the size of 3 similar to 5 nm, which carry out perfect electrical contiguity between film and conducting glass and between every TiO2 coating, was over 6% with a film of 5.5 mu m thickness. Over 8% conversion efficiency has been obtained with a double-layer film composed by the TiO2 layer and the scattering layer. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.