Mechanism of enhanced performance of dye-sensitized solar cell based TiO2 films treated by titanium tetrachloride

Performance of dye-sensitized solar cells can be improved by treating the nanoporous TiO2 films with titanium tetrachloride (TiCl4) aqueous solution. We explore the reason why the performance of dye-sensitized solar cells is enhanced by this method. It is found that the effect of TiCl4 treatment not only reduces the films surface area and improves the electronic contact, but also enhances the binding of N719 with the TiO2 films surface.