Efficient dye-sensitized solar cells from curved silicate microsheet caged TiO2 photoanodes. An avenue of enhancing light harvesting

• Curved silicate microsheets are incorporated with TiO2 for light harvesting in DSSC
• The optical matching between silicate and TiO2 is superior to light reflection.
• The curved silicate can hinder the recombination reaction of electrons with I3−.
• The DSSC with TiO2/curved silicate photoanode shows an efficiency of 9.22%

Enhancement of light harvesting has been a persistent objective for elevating dye excitation and therefore power conversion efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Here we launch a strategy of markedly enhancing light harvesting by caging TiO2 nanoparticles with curved silica microsheets. The results show that the strategy is versatile in suppressing the recombination reaction of electrons with I3− species in liquid electrolyte. Due to the superior reflective behaviors of curved silica microsheets, an optimal efficiency of 9.22% is recorded under simulated air mass 1.5 global sunlight on the DSSC in comparison with 6.51% and 7.51% from pristine TiO2 and planar silicate microsheet incorporated TiO2 photoanode based solar cells, respectively. This strategy is also believed to be applicable to other solar cells such as perovskite solar cells and quantum dot-sensitized solar cells.

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