Analysis of adsorption properties of N719 dye molecules on nanoporous TiO2 surface for dye-sensitized solar cell

Ordered nanoporous TiO2 materials (MK-TiO2, MS-TiO2, and MU-TiO2) were synthesized for the dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) by using different silica templates such as KIT-6, SBA-15, and MSU-H. To prepare a photoelectrode in DSSC, cis-bis(isothiocyanato)bis(2,2′-bipyridyl-4,4′-dicarboxylato)-ruthenium(II)bis-tetrabutylammonium dye (N719) was adsorbed onto the synthesized nanoporous TiO2 materials. The samples were characterized by XRD, TEM, FE-SEM, AFM, and N2 adsorption analyses. The photovoltaic performance of DSSC was evaluated from the overall conversion efficiency, fill factor, open-circuit voltage, and short-circuit current from the I-V curves measured. It was found that the photoelectric performance is highly dependent on the adsorption properties of N719 dye molecules on the nanoporous TiO2 replicas (MK-TiO2, MS-TiO2, and MU-TiO2) synthesized from different silica templates.