Atomic Layer Deposition of TiO2 on Mesoporous nanoITO: Conductive Core–Shell Photoanodes for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells
By Alibabaei, Leila; Farnum, Byron H.; Kalanyan, Berç; Brennaman, M. Kyle; Losego, Mark D.; Parsons, Gregory N. & Meyer, Thomas J.
Published in Nano Letters
2014
Abstract
Core -shell structures consisting of thin shells of conformal TiO2 deposited on high surface area, conductive Sn-doped In2O3 nanoparticle. Mesoscopic films were synthesized by atomic layer deposition and studied for application in dye-sensitized solar cells. Results obtained with the N719 dye show that short-circuit current densities, open-circuit voltages, and back electron transfer lifetimes all increased with increasing TiO2 shell thickness up to 1.8 -2.4 nm and then decline as the thickness was increased further. At higher shell thicknesses, back electron transfer to -RuIII is increasingly competitive with transport to the nanoITO core resulting in decreased device efficiencies.