Effects of light scattering TiO2 surface-modified by dual oxide coating in dye-sensitized solar cells

The surface of light scattering TiO2 particles in the dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) was dual-coated with Al2O3 and SiO2 nanoparticles. The surface modification of the light scattering TiO2 particles was performed by a modified sol–gel method using the colloidal alumina and the colloidal silica as surface coating precursors. It was revealed that the dual-coated light scattering TiO2 particles leads to an increase in short-circuit photocurrent of DSSC device, resulting in an increase in energy conversion efficiency. This seems to be due to the increase of the light scattering by a combination of the light scattering TiO2 particles and the oxide nanoparticles such as Al2O3 and SiO2.

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► Dual-coated light scattering TiO2 in dye sensitized solar cells.
► The oxide nanoparticles help the light to scatter more effectively.
► DSSC with the dual-coated light scattering TiO2 layer show the highest performance.