Band gap engineering and modifying surface of TiO2 nanostructures by Fe2O3 for enhanced-performance of dye sensitized solar cell

Well-crystallized Fe2O3-modified TiO2 nanoparticles are prepared by a hydrothermal method and were successfully used as the photoanode of dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC). Structural, optical and thermal characterizations were carried out by SEM, XRD, AFM, EDAX, DTG, TG and UV–vis spectroscopy. We show that the solar conversion efficiency, incident photocurrent efficiency (IPCE) and fill factor (FF) of Fe2O3-modified TiO2 are significantly increased, about 40%, compared those of to bare TiO2. DSSC shows power conversion efficiency of 7.27% based on Fe2O3-modified TiO2 while TiO2 anatase shows 5.10% solar conversion efficiency. The high improvement in cell performance is attributed to the enhanced light harvesting and high specific surface area for adsorbing more dye molecules in Fe2O3-modified TiO2 nanostructures.