Significance of TiCl4 post-treatment on the performance of hydrothermally synthesized titania nanotubes-based dye-sensitized solar cells

Abstract

In this investigation, the effect of concentration of TiCl4 for the post-treatment of hydrothermally synthesized titania nanotubes-based working electrode for dye-sensitized solar cells has been studied. Hydrothermally synthesized TiO2 nanotubes were treated with different concentrations of TiCl4 to investigate the effect of TiCl4 concentration. The solar cell performance increased with the increase in TiCl4 concentration up to 0.5 M and leveled off. The best solar cell showed a short-circuit current density (Jsc), open-circuit voltage (Voc), fill factor (FF) and efficiency (η) of 12.75 mA/cm2, 795 mV, 69.2 % and 7.04 %, respectively, while untreated TiO2 nanotube showed Jsc, Voc, FF and η of 2.4 mA/cm2, 899 mV, 78.9 % and 1.7 %, respectively.