Solar Energy, Vol.177, 448-454, 2019
Facile synthesis of TiO2 microspheres via solvothermal alcoholysis method for high performance dye-sensitized solar cells
TiO2 microspheres (MS-TiO2) are synthesized by a facile one-step nonaqueous solvothermal alcoholysis method. Without any post-processing, the as-prepared MS-TiO2 constituted by high crystallinity anatase nanoparticles (similar to 18 nm) exhibits large specific surface area (114 m(2)g(-1)), high porosity (71%), and wide pore size distribution (centered at similar to 12.4 nm, average pore diameter is similar to 20.9 nm). Moreover, the MS-TiO2 shows superior light scattering ability. When employed as photoanode in dye-sensitized solar cells, the MS-TiO2 films display excellent dye loading capacity and good light-harvesting capabilities in the range of 400-700 nm. Consequently, an ultrahigh short circuit current density up to 20.41 mA cm(-2) and a high power conversion efficiency of 10.35% are achieved by the MS-TiO2 based solar cells.