Photoanode of nanostructured TiO2 prepared by ultrasonic irradiation assisted of sol-gel with P-25 for dye-sensitized Solar Cells

Abstract

In this work, TiO2 photoanode have been prepared by mixing the commercial titania powder P-25 with a titanium sol gel. In order to improve the mixing condition the paste was gone through the ultrasonic treatment. After that, the doctor blade technique was used to deposit TiO2 paste on ITO-coated glass substrate. There were two monolayer photoanodes with ultrasonic and without ultrasonic TiO2 pastes of about the same thickness have been prepared and their effects on the overall cell performances of the DSSC were compared. From the solar simulator measurement the solar energy conversion efficiency (η) of 2.6642% under AM 1.5 was obtained with the ultrasonic photoanode DSSC which correspond to the short-circuit photocurrent density (Jsc) and open-circuit voltage (Voc) of 7.2552 mA/cm2 and 0.5168 V, respectively, while 1.3127% conversion efficiency (η) obtained from without ultrasonic TiO2 photoanode. The TiO2 photoanode with ultrasonic were efficiently in the fabrication process of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), where the improvement which was almost double from unsonicated film for the overall energy conversion efficiency (η) that achieved for the sonicated TiO2 photoanode with the present of PEG.