Plasma-enhanced polymerized aniline/TiO2 dye-sensitized solar cells

TiO2/polyaniline (PANI) and dye absorbed TiO2/polyaniline electrodes were prepared by plasma-enhanced polymerization using aniline monomer for the fabrication of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The structural and the crystalline studies demonstrated the formation of TiO2/PANI thin film, where the PANI molecules are well penetrated into the porous nanocrystalline TiO2 thin film. The electrical conductivity of pristine PANI greatly improved by the incorporation of TiO2 into TiO2/PANI electrode. The fabricated DSSC with dye absorbed TiO2/PANI electrode exhibited a reasonably well overall conversion efficiency of ∼0.68%. The dye absorbed TiO2/PANI electrode based DSSCs significantly improved the conversion efficiency as compared to the TiO2/PANI electrode and thus, may attribute to the high charge carrier transportation between the TiO2 and the PANI layer. An impedance study was performed to describe the high JSC, FF, and conversion efficiency of dye absorbed TiO2/PANI electrode based cells.