SnO2 nanosheet as a photoanode interfacial layer for dye-sensitized solar cells

SnO2 nanosheet films about 200 nm in thickness are successfully fabricated on fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) glass by a facile solution-grown approach. The prepared SnO2 nanosheet film is applied as an interfacial layer between the nanocrystalline TiO2 film and the FTO substrate in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs). Experimental results show that the introduction of a SnO2 nanosheet film not only suppresses the electron back-transport reaction at the electrolyte/FTO interface but also provides an efficient electron transition channel along the SnO2 nanosheets, and as a result, increasing the open circuit voltage and short current density, and finally improving the conversion efficiency for the DSCs from 3.89% to 4.62%. © 2011 Tianjin University of Technology and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.