Heterostructured TiO2/NiTiO3 Nanorod Arrays for Inorganic Sensitized Solar Cells with Significantly Enhanced Photovoltaic Performance and Stability

摘要

Organic dyes used in the conventional dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) suffer from poor light stability and high cost. In this work, we demonstrate a new inorganic sensitized solar cell based on ordered one-dimensional semiconductor nanorod arrays of TiO2/NiTiO3 (NTO) heterostructures prepared via a facile two-step hydrothermal approach. The semiconductor heterostructure arrays are highly desirable and promising for DSSCs because of their direct charge transport capability and slow charge recombination rate. The low-cost NTO inorganic semiconductor possesses an appropriate band gap that matches well with TiO2, which behaves like a "dye" to enable efficient light harvesting and fast electron hole separation. The solar cells constructed by the ordered TiO2/NTO heterostructure photoanodes show a significantly improved power conversion efficiency, high fill factor, and more promising, outstanding life stability. The present work will open up an avenue to design heterostructured inorganics for high-performance solar cells.