In-situ synthesis of TiO2 network nanoporous structure on Ti wire substrate and its application in fiber dye sensitized solar cells

In this paper, we explore a two-step treatment method to modify the Ti wires which are used as anode substrates of fiber dye sensitized solar cells (FDSSCs). A special kind of network nanoporous structure is formed on the surface of Ti wire substrates through sodium hydroxide hydrothermal reaction and titanium tetrachloride (TiCl4) assistant treatment. Nanoporous structures with different sizes are in-situ grown on the Ti wire substrates by changing the hydrothermal reaction condition. Then, TiO2 network nanoporous structures with branch-like nano-structure or 2D nanoflakes are obtained after TiCl4 treatment. The effects of these network nanoporous structures on the FDSSC performances are investigated intensively. It is found that these special network nanoporous structures between TiO2 nanoparticle active layer and Ti wire substrate are beneficial to the connection of the nanoparticle layer and fiber-shaped substrate, thus improving the electron transport rate and prolonging electron lifetime. As a result, the power conversion efficiency of this parallel assembled FDSSC increases to 4.64% from 2.56% after this two-step treatment. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.