Polyol thermolysis synthesis of TiO2 nanoparticles and its paste formulation to fabricate photoanode for dye-sensitized solar cells

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles (NPs) were prepared by a simple polyol thermolysis process using various mole ratios of titanium tetrachloride (TiCl4) and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP). The prepared TiO2 NPs were characterized by TG/DTA, XRD, SEM, and BET analysis. The TiO2 NPs obtained using 0.1 M of TiCl4 and 0.02 M of PVP have high surface area with lesser particles size than the same obtained using 0.1 M of TiCl4 with other mole ratios of PVP. The high surface area TiO2 NPs were used to formulate TiO2 paste. The impact of ethyl cellulose, terpineol, and dibutyl phthalate in the formulation of TiO2 paste was optimized with respect to standard TiO2 paste (Dyesol Ltd.) on the adsorption of dye was studied by UV-Vis spectroscopy. The photovoltaic performance of DSSCs fabricated using the formulated TiO2 paste has achieved 97.83 % of power conversion efficiency (PCE) (eta = 4.5 %) with respect to the standard TiO2 paste (Dyesol Ltd.) and its PCE were found to be 4.6 % (eta). This PCE value was nearly closer to that of the same DSSC fabricated using the standard TiO2 paste (Dyesol Ltd.) and higher than the P25 TiO2 (Degussa) paste and its achieved PCE were found to be 86.04 %.