Effects of Anodic Titanium Oxide Nanotube Arrays on Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

This work has utilized the anodic oxidation method to fabricate the TiO2 nanotube arrays which were then applied as the anode to the dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Surface morphology of TiO2 nanotube arrays, the length and the pore diameter of the nanotubes were observed by FE-SEM. With XRD analysis, the annealed TiO2 nanotube array has been identified as the anatase phase which can enhance the electron transition in the TiO2. The influence of the TiO2 nanotube arrays to the absorption of the dye molecules was examined by UV-VIS spectroscopy. It is found that the TiO2 nanotubes with longer lengths can improve the dye absorption, thus increases the photovoltaic conversion efficiency of the DSSCs. The DSSCs with TiO2 nanotube arrays have achieved photovoltaic conversion efficiency as high as 4.62% in this work.