Preparation of composite light-scattering layer for dye sensitized solar cells

Abstract In this work, the dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) were fabricated with bilayered structure TiO 2 based photoelectrodes, active and composite light scattering layers. The photoconversion efficiencies of these cells were significantly greater than those of the cells made by single active layered TiO 2 films. The composite scattering layers consist of mixed commercial TiO 2 particles (ST41) and anatase TiO 2 nanoparticles (NPs). The effect of scattering layer composition (ST41:NP weight ratio) on the photovoltaic performance of DSSCs has also been investigated. The best photoconversion efficiency of DSSC was 9.02% (open circuit voltage (V oc ) = 0.76 V, short-circuit photocurrent density (J sc ) = 17.6 mA/cm 2 , fill factor (FF) = 0.68) for ST41 + NP cell (40% ST41 and 60% NPs) with the TiO 2 film thickness of 15.3 μm, which was 58% enhancement compared with the TiO 2 film without scattering-layered TiO 2 . The scattering layer effect was vindicated by the incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency measurement.