Synthesis and application of TiO2 nanorods as photo-anode in dye-sensitized solar cells

Abstract

Titanium dioxide or TiO2 with nanorods structure as photo-anode component in dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) has attracted attention in many research because this morphology has the ability to transfer electron fastly, thereby reducing the risks of electron recombination. In this research, TiO2 nanorods were synthesized using various ratios of titanium isopropoxide (TTIP) i.e. 1, 2, and 4, and mixed with hydrochloric acid (HCl) and deionized (DI) water with a ratio of 60:60. The growing process was done via hydrothermal method at 200 °C for 3 hours. The morphology of TiO2 nanorods photo-anode was characterized using scanning electron microscope (SEM). Meanwhile, the performance of DSSC cell was characterized using incident photon-to-current efficiency and current-voltage (I-V) measurement under solar simulator with an intensity of 500 W/m2. The TiO2 nanorods that were grown using 2 ratio of TTIP generated cell with the best efficiency, that is 0.08%. The highest efficiency was obtained using this ratio presumably because the produced TiO2 nanorods had the optimized morphology for an optimum dye adsorption, good and fast electron transport, and thus was able to reduce the electron recombination within the photo-anode.