Correlating titania morphology and chemical composition with dye-sensitized solar cell performance

We have investigated the use of various morphologies, including nanoparticles, nanowires, and sea-urchins of TiO₂ as the semiconducting material used as components of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Analysis of the solar cells under AM 1.5 solar irradiation reveals the superior performance of hydrothermally derived nanoparticles, by comparison with two readily available commercial nanoparticle materials, within the DSSC architecture. The sub-structural morphology of films of these nanostructured materials has been directly characterized using SEM and indirectly probed using dye desorption. Furthermore, the surfaces of these nanomaterials were studied using TEM in order to visualize their structure, prior to their application within DSSCs. Surface areas of the materials have been quantitatively analyzed by collecting BET adsorption and dye desorption data. Additional investigation using open circuit voltage decay measurements reveals the efficiency of electron conduction through each TiO₂ material. Moreover, the utilization of various chemically distinctive titanate materials within the DSSCs has also been investigated, demonstrating the deficiencies of using these particular chemical compositions within traditional DSSCs.