Highly uniform core/double-shell-structured β-NaYF4:Er(3+),Yb(3+)@SiO2@TiO2 hexagonal sub-microprisms are prepared and employed in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) internally. This work paves a facile way to enable the most-efficient upconversion material (β-NaYF4:Er(3+),Yb(3+)) to be used as scattering and upconversion centers in the photoelectrode of a DSC.
How to improve the conversion efficiency and the stability of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) are two major problems. Furthermore, reduction of the manufacturing cost of DSSCs and large-scale manufacture are also very important factors. As a raw material, commercial P25 would be used for large-scale manufacture of TiO2paste with simple preparation procedure. However, there are several drawbacks for P25 such as the low surface area of P25 powder and the poor connectivity among particles in film using tradition P25 paste without modification. In this paper, we introduced a simple modified method by adding high surface area anatase TiO2into pure P25 paste. The photoelectric conversion performances of DSSCs based on these photo-electrodes were tested. The results show that the open-circuit voltage, the fill factor and the energy conversion efficiency of the modified electrode were increased. It is found that the modified P25 films have fast electron transportation and a slow charge recombination. We conclude that through adding the anatase TiO2nanoparticles to the P25 paste with high surface area, it can not only improve the particles connectivity among inside the films, but also enhance the efficiency of DSSCs.
Trace amount Ca-doped TiO2films were synthesized by the hydrothermal method and applied as photoanodes of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). To prepare Ca-doped TiO2film electrodes, several milliliters of Ca(NO3)2solution was added in TiO2solution during the hydrolysis process. The improvements of DSSCs were confirmed by photocurrent density-voltage (J-V) characteristics, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurements. Owing to the doping effect of Ca, the Ca-doped TiO2thin film shows power conversion efficiency of 7.45% for 50 ppm Ca-doped TiO2electrode, which is higher than that of the undoped TiO2film (6.78%) and the short-circuit photocurrent density(Jsc)increases from 13.68 to 15.42 mA·cm−2. The energy conversion efficiency and short-circuit current density(Jsc)of DSSCs were increased due to the faster electron transport in the Ca-doped TiO2film. When Ca was incorporated into TiO2films, the electrons transport faster and the charge collection efficiencyηccis higher than that in the undoped TiO2films.
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