Enhanced electron transport in mesoporous TiO2 films modified by sol-gel necking for dye-sensitized solar cells

Mesoporous TiO2 films modified via sol-gel necking were fabricated by dispersing Ti tetra-isopropoxide (TTIP; 8 to 16 wt% over TiO2) with TiO2 nanoparticles in isopropyl alcohol. The dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) with 13 wt% TTIP-modified TiO2 film exhibited significantly improved overall energy conversion efficiency, despite having less adsorbed dye when compared with DSSCs with untreated and TiCl4 post-treated TiO2 films. The improvement can be attributed to the sol-gel necking (or interconnection) between the nanoparticles which leads to a much faster electron transport and a suppression of the recombination (or back electron transfer) between the TiO2 and electrolyte.