Abstract
The morphological properties of TiO 2 nanotube heavily influence the performance of dye-sensitized solar cell using TiO 2 nanotube-array as the photoanode. We report an efficient trimming method of fabricating 18.8 μm TiO 2 nanotube-arrays with sidewall thicknesses ranged from 23 nm to 12 nm. With the photoanode of thin-wall nanotube-array, the photocurrent density of the dye-sensitized solar cell increased from 13.0 mAcm 2+ to 16.2 mAcm 2+ when the thickness of the sidewall was thinned down from 23 nm to 14 nm. Electrical impedance spectroscopy showed a significant difference of internal electrical characteristics between the solar cells with the as-prepared and with thin-wall nanotube-arrays. The thinning of the sidewall of the nanotubes had little influence on the diffusion of the electrons; the improvements in photocurrent density are the result of the more efficient infiltration of electrolyte into wider voids between neighboring thin-wall nanotubes.
Original language | English |
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Journal | Journal of the Electrochemical Society |
Volume | 159 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 6 Jan 2012 |