The use of ZrO2 mixed TiO2 nanostructures as efficient dye-sensitized solar cells' electrodes

The mixed oxide of zirconium (ZrO2) and titanium (TiO2) nanostructures have been synthesized and used as electrodes for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSC). The TiO2-ZrO2 mixed oxide powder has a larger surface area than the pure component of TiO2. For the UV action spectra of unsensitized photochemical cell, the TiO2-ZrO2 mixed oxide electrode band gap (E-g) around 3.27 eV, which is higher than that of pure component of titania (E-g=3.2 eV). The increases in both of BET surface area and band gap contributed to the improvement on short-circuit photocurrent and open-circuit voltage, respectively. The DSC fabricated by TiO2-ZrO2 mixed oxide electrode significantly improved solar energy conversion efficiency when compared to a cell that was fabricated only by pure component of TiO2. (C) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.