Preparation and properties of nanostructured TiO2 electrode by a polymer organic-medium screen-printing technique

An organic-medium screen-printing technique was developed for making porous TiO2 electrodes. The TiO2 pastes were prepared by mixing only 100% polyalkylene glycol and commercial nanocrystalline TiO2 powders. The obtained paste is highly printable and hard to evaporate during printing. The TiO2 electrodes have a very porous structure with large cavities. The dye-sensitized solar cell based on these meso-macroporous TiO2 electrodes exhibits high overall conversion efficiency of 4.3-5.8%, which is comparable to those of prepared by water or terpineol medium. (C) 2003 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.