The application of freestanding titanate nanofiber paper for scattering layers in dye-sensitized solar cells

A titanate nanofiber paper with robust and good flexible property was successfully prepared by alkali hydrothermal synthesis with simple paper-making method. These nanofibers were about 80 nm in diameter and had a typical length in the range of tens of micrometers. Despite the transformation from titanate to TiO2-B phase was initially started, such nanofiber paper still kept its original shape and good flexibility after calcinations at 450 °C for 30 min. A solar cell with titanate nanofiber paper as scattering layer yielded an overall conversion efficiency of 4.90% under an incident solar energy of 100 mW/cm2, about 27.5% higher than that without nanofiber paper.