Nanocrystalline TiO2 films treated with acid and base catalysts for dye-sensitized solar cells

Crystalline size and porosity of TiO2 films are known to be easily controlled by changing acid or base catalyst concentration. This work investigates the influence of acid/base catalyst treatments of TiO2 nanoparticles on the efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The results indicate that the performance of DSSC fabricated with base-treated TiO2 is remarkably better than that fabricated with acid-treated TiO2 because of different film properties including particle size, shape, film porosity, and surface structure and electron transport phenomena.