MOE Key Laboratory of Bioinorganic and Synthetic Chemistry, Key Laboratory of Environment and Energy Chemistry of Guangdong Higher Education Institutes, School of Chemistry, Sun Yat-Sen (Zhongshan) University, Guangzhou 510275, P. R. China.
Nanoscale. 2017 Jul 20;9(28):9913-9920. doi: 10.1039/c7nr03134c.
A tri-layered photoelectrode for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) is assembled using single crystal hollow TiO nanoparticles (HTNPs), sub-micro hollow TiO mesospheres (SHTMSs) and hierarchical TiO microspheres (HTMSs). The bottom layer composed of single crystal hollow TiO nanoparticles serves to absorb dye molecules, harvest light due to its hollow structure and keep a better mechanical contact with FTO conducting glass; the middle layer consisting of sub-micro hollow mesospheres works as a multifunctional layer due to its high dye adsorption ability, strong light trapping and scattering ability and slow recombination rates; and the top layer consisting of hierarchical microspheres enhances light scattering. The DSSCs made of photoanodes with a tripartite-layer structure (Film 4) show a superior photoconversion efficiency (PCE) of 9.24%, which is 7.4% higher than a single layered photoanode composed of HTNPs (Film 1: 8.90%), 4.6% higher than a double layer-based electrode consisting of HTNPs and SHTMSs (Film 2: 9.03%) and 2.6% higher than a double layer-based electrode made of HTNPs and HTMSs (Film 3: 9.11%). The significant improvements in the PCE for tri-layered TiO photoanodes are mainly because of the combined effects of their higher light scattering ability, long electron lifetime, fast electron transport rate, efficient charge collection and a considerable surface area with high dye-loading capability. This study confirms that the facile tri-layered photoanode is an interesting structure for high-efficiency DSSCs.
用于染料敏化太阳能电池（DSSC）的三层光电电极是由单晶空心 TiO 纳米粒子（HTNPs）、亚微米空心 TiO 介孔球（SHTMSs）和分级 TiO 微球（HTMSs）组装而成。由单晶空心 TiO 纳米粒子组成的底层用于吸收染料分子，由于其空心结构而收集光，并与 FTO 导电玻璃保持更好的机械接触；由亚微米空心介孔球组成的中层由于其高染料吸附能力、强光捕获和散射能力以及慢重组速率而起到多功能层的作用；由分级微球组成的顶层增强光散射。由具有三分层结构的光阳极制成的 DSSC（薄膜 4）显示出优越的光电转换效率（PCE）为 9.24%，比由 HTNPs 组成的单层光阳极（薄膜 1：8.90%）高 7.4%，比由 HTNPs 和 SHTMSs 组成的双层基电极（薄膜 2：9.03%）高 4.6%，比由 HTNPs 和 HTMSs 组成的双层基电极（薄膜 3：9.11%）高 2.6%。三分层 TiO 光阳极的 PCE 显著提高，主要是由于其具有更高的光散射能力、长电子寿命、快速电子传输率、有效的电荷收集和相当大的表面积以及高染料负载能力的综合影响。这项研究证实了简便的三层光电阳极是高效 DSSC 的有趣结构。
