Laser annealed composite titanium dioxide electrodes for dye-sensitized solar cells on glass and plastics

We report a rapid and low temperature process for fabricating composite TiO2 electrodes for dye-sensitized solar cells on glass and plastics by in tandem spray deposition and laser annealing. A homogenized KrF excimer laser beam (248 nm) was used to layer-by-layer anneal spray deposited TiO2 nanoparticles. The produced TiO2 film is crack free and contains small particles (30 nm) mixed with different fractions of larger particles (100-200 nm) controlled by the applied laser fluence. Laser annealed double-layered structure is demonstrated for both doctor-blade deposited and spray-deposited electrodes and performance enhancement can be observed. The highest demonstrated all-laser-annealed cells utilizing ruthenium dye and liquid electrolyte showed power conversion efficiency of similar to 3.8% under simulated illumination of 100 mW/cm(2).