Rapidly Forming the Chemical Bond Titania–Carbon in Hybrid Composite TiO 2 /Reduced Graphene Oxide to Enhance the Efficiency of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Hybrid composite TiO2/reduced graphene oxide (TiO2/rGO) is considered as a potential photoanode for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) due to their excellent charge transport. This work aimed to prepare the composite TiO2/rGO from TiO2 and GO via a facile reduction step by ascorbic acid and annealing step at 450 °C. Incorporation 1%wt rGO into TiO2 photoanode can boost the overall performance of DSSC with the photocurrent of 13.5 mA/cm2 and the efficiency of 6.1% which is 37% enhanced than the bare TiO2 photoanode. The XPS, Raman spectroscopy and FT–IR results revealed the formation of the chemical bonding titania–carbon in composites TiO2/rGO-1% by ex-situ preparation. The interfacial charge transfer through chemical bonds significantly improves the photoelectrons transport and suppresses the recombination of electron holes in TiO2 structure.