ZnO nanowire arrays coating on TiO2 nanoparticles as a composite photoanode for a high efficiency DSSC

A novel composite photoanode with ZnO nanowire arrays coating on the top of TiO2 nanoparticles is fabricated, and an efficiency of 4.52% is achieved for the composite cell, far higher than both 0.90% of the ZnO nanowire cell and 3.56% of the TiO2 nanoparticle cell. The improved efficiency is resulted from the high surface area of nanoparticles, as well as fast electron transport and light scattering effect of nanowires.