Novel upconversion Er, Yb-CeO2 hollow spheres as scattering layer materials for efficient dye-sensitized solar cells

- Upconversion (UC) Er,Yb-CeO2 hollow spheres by carbonaceous spheres as template.
- Both TiO2 and UC hollow spheres assembled to bilayer structure in DSSCs.
- Cell efficiency improved 27% compared to the cell without scattering layer.
- Improvement due to upconversion, scattering effect and higher dye-loading.

Upconversion (UC) Er, Yb-CeO2 hollow spheres were successfully prepared using carbonaceous spheres as removable template via hydrothermal method for improving the efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Light harvesting efficiency was enhanced 27% due to the upconversion effect, scattering effect and higher dye-loading capacities. It is expected that the work provides a new optimization approach for CeO2 application in DSSCs.