Enhanced Efficiency of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell by High Surface Area Anatase-TiO2-Modified P25 Paste

How to improve the conversion efficiency and the stability of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) are two major problems. Furthermore, reduction of the manufacturing cost of DSSCs and large-scale manufacture are also very important factors. As a raw material, commercial P25 would be used for large-scale manufacture of TiO2 paste with simple preparation procedure. However, there are several drawbacks for P25 such as the low surface area of P25 powder and the poor connectivity among particles in film using tradition P25 paste without modification. In this paper, we introduced a simple modified method by adding high surface area anatase TiO2 into pure P25 paste. The photoelectric conversion performances of DSSCs based on these photo-electrodes were tested. The results show that the open-circuit voltage, the fill factor and the energy conversion efficiency of the modified electrode were increased. It is found that the modified P25 films have fast electron transportation and a slow charge recombination. We conclude that through adding the anatase TiO2 nanoparticles to the P25 paste with high surface area, it can not only improve the particles connectivity among inside the films, but also enhance the efficiency of DSSCs.