Facile non-hydrolytic solvothermal synthesis of one dimensional TiO2 nanorods for efficient dye-sensitized solar cells

• Tiny TiO2 nanorods with high surface area were prepared by simple solvothermal method.
• The obtained TiO2 nanorods (TNR) were applied in DSSC as photoanode and compared with DP-25 commercial TiO2.
• The higher efficiency of 9.21 % was obtained for TiO2 nanorod based DSSC than DP-25 TiO2 based device.
• TNR based photoanode provide enhanced dye adsorption, better electron transport and efficient light harvesting capacity.

One dimensional rod shaped TiO2 nanostructures were successfully synthesized by a simple non-aqueous, alcoholysis based solvothermal process. Anatase TiO2 nanorods (TiO2 NRs) exhibited a surface area of 109.79 m2/g with particle length and diameter of ~30–50 nm and ~10–15 nm (from SEM data), respectively. The photovoltaic performance of TiO2 nanorods based electrode was investigated in the dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC). The device based on TiO2 NRs electrode exhibited an excellent short-circuit current density (Jsc) of 17.75 mA cm−2 and an open-circuit voltage (Voc) of 0.75 V under 1 Sun AM 1.5 G solar light. Due to high dye loading, good light harvesting and fast electron transport, the optimal conversion efficiency (9.21%) of the DSSC fabricated from TiO2 NRs was significantly higher than that of the commercial DP-25 TiO2 nanoparticles based cell (6.43%).