Solid-state dye-sensitized solar cell with p-type NiO as a hole collector

A solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) comprising of p-type NiO thin layer on TiO₂ was fabricated in which the dye is adsorbed on the p-type oxide and the thin NiO layer acts as a hole collector as well as a barrier for charge recombination. DSSC with NiO-coated TiO₂ electrodes with Ru-dye delivers I_sc=0.15 mA and V_oc=480 mV. It was shown that the p-type oxide materials could be successfully used to construct DSSC and the plausible charge transfer mechanism is discussed.