Effect of single-chirality single-walled carbon nanotubes in dye sensitized solar cells photoanodes

•SWNTs of enriched chirality were prepared using a single-pass gel-size exclusion modified procedure.•Different single and mixed chiralities were tested in DSSCs to verify the impact on the opto-electronic characteristics.•DSSCs showed marked improvement in efficiency with specific chiralities.

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) with photoanodes composed of chirality selected single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) have been fabricated and tested for first time. Single chirality SWCNTs separation (93% purity) have been achieved by modifying standard size exclusion gel chromatography. Chirality selection has allowed for “tuning” of the energy barrier at the TiO2/SWNT/FTO interface, electronic conductivity enhancement, and reduced SWCNTs-ruthenium dye competition for light absorption resulting in a 81% energy conversion efficiency improvement compared to mixed chirality cells. Unfortunately, energy conversion efficiency has been limited by cells' low shunt resistance. Additionally, SWCNTs electron transfer properties have been exploited to prepare mixed and chirality specific CNTs based DSSCs' counter electrodes.