Low-temperature fabrication of dye-sensitized plastic electrodes by electrophoretic preparation of mesoporous TiO2 layers

A mesoporous nanocrystalline TiO2 layer was prepared on a conductive indium-tin oxide (ITO)-coated poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) film by low-temperature fabrication processes comprising high-field electrophoretic deposition of TiO2 particles and post-treatments with a titanium oxide sol for interparticle binding. TiO2-coated ITO-PET film was dye-sensitized with Ru bipyridyl complex (N719) and used as the photoanode of an electrochemical solar cell using methoxyacetonitrile-based iodide/triiodide redox electrolyte. The solar cell yielded high conversion efficiencies of 4.1 and 4.3% for incident solar energies of 100 and 23 mW/cm(2). (C) 2004 The Electrochemical Society.