Enhanced efficiency in dye-sensitized solar cells based on mesoporous titanium phosphate photoanode

• Mesoporous titanium phosphate (MTP1) templated by a gemini surfactant.
• MTP1 material has very high BET surface area and mesoporosity.
• Mesoporous titanium phosphate has been used as photoanode for the first time.
• MTO1 bilayer-nanostructured photoanode with energy conversion efficiency of 6.0%.

A new bilayer-nanostructured photoanode with mesoporous titanium phosphate (MTP1) as overlayer and titanium dioxide (TiO2) as underlayer has been fabricated. Mesoporous titanium phosphate material with high surface area (442 m2 g−1) has been synthesized hydrothermally by using a new tailor made gemini surfactant under acidic pH conditions. HR TEM and N2 sorption analysis revealed the presence of disordered mesopores of dimension ca. 4.50 nm in MTP1 material. Open-circuit voltage decay (OCVD) spectroscopy is used to investigate the kinetic process of electron transport and recombination within TiO2/TiO2, MTP1/TiO2, or MTP1/MTP1 based DSSCs, revealing a faster electron transport rate and a lower recombination rate in the MTP1/TiO2 photoanode. The energy conversion efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) based on such a MTP1/TiO2 photoelectrode shows a significant enhancement (6.0%) compared to TiO2/TiO2 photoelectrode (5.5%) with similar thickness (∼7 μm), suggesting the favorable electron transport rate in former.

Figure optionsDownload as PowerPoint slide