Organized mesoporous TiO2 films exhibiting greatly enhanced performance in dye-sensitized solar cells.

Zukalová, Markéta; Zukal, Arnost; Kavan, Ladislav; Nazeeruddin, Mohammad K; Liska, Paul; Grätzel, Michael · Nano Lett · 2005

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

The Pluronic P123 templated mesoporous TiO2 film was grown via layer-by-layer deposition and characterized by a novel methodology based on the adsorption of n-pentane. Multiple-layer depositions did not perturb the mesoporous structure significantly. Our TiO2 film was sensitized by a newly developed Ru-bipyridine dye (N945) and was applied as a photoanode in dye-sensitized solar cell. The 1-microm-thick mesoporous film, made by the superposition of three layers, showed enhanced solar conversion efficiency by about 50% compared to that of traditional films of the same thickness made from randomly oriented anatase nanocrystals.