Improvement of the Zirconia shell in nanostructured titania core-shell working electrodes for dye-sensitized solar cells

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) were constructed using nanostructured core-shell working electrodes produced by a sol-gel method. The precursor chemistry was studied by comparing zirconium butoxide and zirconium isopropoxide. Additionally, the concentrations in polar solvents were altered and used on two different titania nanostructures. The electrodes were characterized by photoelectrochemical measurements (PECM). The best efficiencies were recorded for the working electrodes modified with 0.05 M zirconium butoxide in n-butanol at 2.29% from 1.36% (uncoated TiO2) for P25 films and 2.06% from 1.38% (uncoated TiO2) for anatase films under a light intensity of 0.1 Sun. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.