Enhanced Performance of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells based on TiO2 Nanotube Membranes using Optimized Annealing Profile

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that optimizing the annealing profile of TiO2 nanotube membranes significantly improves the efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells by reducing trapping states and enhancing electron transport.

Contribution

It introduces an optimized annealing process for TiO2 nanotube membranes that enhances DSSC performance compared to previous methods.

Findings

Optimized annealing increases DSSC efficiency to 9.8%.

Lower density of trapping states improves electron transport.

Enhanced light conversion efficiency in DSSCs.

Abstract

We use free-standing TiO2 nanotube membranes that are transferred onto FTO slides in front-side illuminated dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). We investigate the key parameters for solar cell arrangement of self-ordered anodic TiO2 nanotube layers on the FTO substrate and namely the influence of the annealing procedure on the DSSC light conversion efficiency. The results show that using an optimal temperature annealing profile can significantly enhance the DSSC efficiency (in our case 9.8 %), as it leads to a markedly lower density of trapping states in the tube oxide, and thus to strongly improved electron transport properties.