Low-Temperature Processing of Titanium Oxide Nanoparticles Photoanodes for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Abstract

Using the low-temperature processing of different organofunctional silanes like TEOS, GPTS, and MPTS to incorporate within TiO 2 network, dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) processed at low temperatures were obtained. The UV-cured MPTS-modified layer exhibited better performance over the TEOS and GPTS, where better mechanical stable layer is achieved in addition to better interconnection between the TiO 2 nanoparticles. The J-V characteristics of the DSC composed of silane-based layer showed that the improved cell performance was due to the high photocurrent density accompanied with more dye adsorption and higher charge injection from TiO 2 to FTO substrate resulting from the formation of an ohmic contact with the substrate. The highest conversion efficiency attained for MPTS-TiO 2 layer cured with UV and followed by heating at 300 ∘ C was 3.75±0.07 %, which is 2.8 times better than the GPTS-based layer.