Surface properties of SnO2nanowires for enhanced performance with dye-sensitized solar cells

Our recent studies showed that nanowire based DSSCs exhibited over 250 mV higher open circuit potentials (VOC) compared to those using nanoparticles. In this study, the electron transport and surface properties of nanowires and nanoparticles are investigated to understand the reasons for the observed higher photovoltages with NW based solar cells. It was seen that, in addition to slow recombination kinetics, the lower work function of SnO2nanowires compared to the nanoparticle counterparts also significantly contributes to the high VOC observed for the nanowire based DSSCs.