Efficiency Enhancement of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells Using Ti-Nb Alloy Photoanodes with Mesoporous Oxide Surface

A native mesoporous titanium-niobium oxides layer on a Ti-6wt%Nb alloy sheet surface prepared through H2O2 pretreatment was successfully developed as an efficient photoanode for a dye-sensitized cell (DCCS). This alloyed mesoporous structure not only provided an increased surface area in contact with screen-printed TiO2 nanoparticles but also enabled Nb alloying in sintered nanoparticle deposits. Improvement of energy conversion efficiency of DSSCs can be increased up to 22% using H2O2 pretreatments with a proper post-annealing, and the mesoporous Ti-Nb photoanodes enhanced conversion efficiency by 15.2% to 18.3%, compared with unalloyed structures. EIS results under dark current indicate that DSSCs with mesoporous Ti-Nb photoanode exhibited a greater inhibition of recombination of electrons and holes at the interfaces of Nb-doped TiO2/dye/electrolyte layer due to energy barriers. (c) 2020 The Electrochemical Society (ECS). Published on behalf of ECS by IOP Publishing Limited.