Low-Temperature Preparation of Amorphous-Shell/Nanocrystalline-Core NanostructuredTiO2Electrodes for Flexible Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Abstract

An amorphous shell/nanocrystalline core nanostructuredTiO2electrode was prepared at low temperature, in which the mixture ofTiO2powder andTiCl4aqueous solution was used as the paste for coating a film and in this film amorphousTiO2resulted from direct hydrolysis ofTiCl4at100∘Csintering was produced to connect the particles forming a thick crack-free uniform nanostructuredTiO2film (12 μm), and on which a photoelectrochemical solar cell-based was fabricated, generating a short-circuit photocurrent density of 13.58 mA/cm2, an open-circuit voltage of 0.647 V, and an overall 4.48% light-to-electricity conversion efficiency under 1 sun illumination.