Efficient highly flexible dye sensitized solar cells of three dimensional graphene decorated titanium dioxide nanoparticles on plastic substrate

•3D graphene-TiO2 on plastic substrate for DSSCs was fabricated at room temperature.•3D conductive graphene skeleton can significantly improve the surface area and charge transportation.•Highly flexible DSSCs assembled using 3D graphene-TiO2 film delivered a power conversion efficiency up to 6.41%.•3D graphene showed great potential for sinter-less flexible DSSCs.

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) on flexible plastic substrates usually suffer from a slower electron diffusion rate and insufficient surface area due to no sintering process. Therefore, the conversion efficiency (ƞ) of such flexible DSSCs is normally below 6%. Here, the highly flexible DSSCs with enhanced performance are fabricated at room temperature, employing 3D graphene decorated nanocrystalline TiO2 films (3DGT) as anode on plastic substrates. Owing to the enhanced charge transportation and increased surface area from 3D conductive graphene skeleton, the 13 μm-thick 3DGT-0.85 (0.85 wt% 3D graphene plus TiO2 nanoparticles) anode achieves a power conversion efficiency of 6.41%, which is 56% higher than pristine TiO2 based anode. This efficiency is among the highest values for the previously reported TiO2 photoanodes on plastic substrates.

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