Synthesis of Zr-incorporated TiO2 Using a Solvothermal Method and its Photovoltaic Efficiency on Dye-sensitized Solar Cells

摘要

This study examines the photoelectric conversion efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) when nanometer-sized Zr (0.1, 0.5, and 1.0 mol %)-TiO2 prepared using a solvothermal method is utilized as the working electrode material. The particle sizes observe in the transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images are 30 nm in all samples. The absorption band is slightly broadened at the tail for the 0.1 mol % Zr-TiO2, and the intensity of the photoluminescence (PL) curves of the Zr-incorporated TiO2 is significantly smaller than that of the pure TiO2. Compared to that using pure TiO2, the energy conversion efficiency is enhanced considerably by the application of Zr-TiO2 in the DSSCs to approximately 6.17% for 0.5 mol % Zr-TiO2 with the N719 dye (10.0 μm film thickness and 5.0 mm × 5.0 mm cell area) under 100 mW/cm2 of simulated sunlight.