Optimization of nanostructured titania photoanodes for dye-sensitized solar cells: study and experimentation of ticl4 treatment

摘要

Titanium tetrachloride (TiCl4) treatment processed by chemical bath deposition is usually adopted as preandudpost-treatment for nanocrystalline titanium dioxide (TiO2) film deposition in the dye-sensitized solarudcell (DSC) technology. Pre-treatment influences positively the bonding strength between the fluorinated tinudoxide (FTO) substrate and the porous TiO2 layer, blocking the charge recombination at the interface betweenudthe conduction glass FTO and the I3ud− ions present in the I−/I3ud− red-ox couple. Additionally, TiCl4 posttreatmentudis a widely known method capable of improving the performance of dye-sensitized solar cells, inudparticular, the photocurrent collected from the device.udIn this study, the influence and effect of TiCl4 pre- and post-treatment on the TiO2 layer is proposed andudcompared to the untreated film. The relative DSC devices are characterized in terms of short circuit currentuddensity, open circuit voltage, fill factor, conversion efficiency and IPCE.udThe dark current characteristics of cells with a treated and untreated TiO2 layer are also shown in order toudevaluate the effect of TiCl4 pre-treatment as a blocking layer.