Preparation of nanocrystalline TiO2 thin film at low temperature and its application in dye-sensitized solar cell

The electrophoretic deposition combined with common pressure hydrothermal treatment was employed to prepare nanocrystalline TiO2 thin film from suspension of tetra-n-butyl titanate and P25 at low temperature. The tetra-n-butyl titanate was hydrolyzed and crystallized into anatase to interconnect nanocrystalline TiO2 particles and to stick them to a conductive substrate by common pressure hydrothermal treatment to improve the electron transport properties of the deposited thin film. A dye-sensitized solar cell based on TiO2 thin film prepared by the low temperature method yielded the conversion efficiency of 6.12%. Due to the relative slower electron transport rate in the deposited film, its conversion efficiency was slightly lower than that of the cell with TiO2 thin film prepared by the conventional high temperature sintering method. Since it is free of high temperature sintering step, this method can be used to prepare nanocrystalline TiO2 thin film on plastic polymer conductive substrate for fabrication of flexible dye-sensitized solar cell.