Efficiency enhancement of ZnO-based dye-sensitized solar cell by hollow TiO2 nanofibers

One-dimensional nanostructures as the photoanode of dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) can provide a direct transport pathway for electrons injection to increase electrons transfer efficiency. In this work, hollow TiO2 nanofibers were fabricated by one step electrospinning based on sol-gel method, and were used to successfully enhance the conversion efficiency of ZnO-based DSSC. The effects of different TiO2 weight percentages on the performance of TiO2/ZnO composite photoanode were investigated systematically. The results indicate that the light scattering of the photoanode film is increased and the electrons recombination is suppressed when appropriate amount of hollow TiO2 nanofibers was added into ZnO. The maximal energy conversion efficiency reaches 4.59% by adding 10 wt.% of hollow TiO2 nanofibers, which is 62% higher than that of DSSC based on pure ZnO nanoparticles.