A simple electrophoretic deposition method to prepare TiO2–B nanoribbon thin films for dye-sensitized solar cells

This paper describes a simple method utilizing electrophoretic deposition (EPD) to quickly synthesize hydrogen titanate nanoribbon films. The subsequent heating of the hydrogen titanate nanoribbon films causes the dehydration of interlayered OH groups, thereby leading to TiO2–B nanoribbon films. Thick, uniform TiO2–B nanoribbon films were obtained from prepared alkali suspensions. The crystal structure of the hydrogen titanate and TiO2–B nanoribbon films obtained from EPD underwent analysis by X-ray diffraction and high-resolution transmission electron microscope. EPD controlled the thickness of TiO2–B nanoribbons films. TiO2–B-coated fluorine-doped tin oxide films were dye-sensitized with N3 and used as a photoanode in an electrochemical solar cell. The solar cell yielded conversion efficiencies of 0.87% for an incident solar energy of 100 mW/cm2.