This work reports on the preparation of Cr-doped TiO 2 (Cr-TiO 2 ) and its utilization in the photoanode of a dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC). Pure TiO 2 and 10% Cr-TiO 2 sols were individually obtained via hydrolysis followed by a hydrothermal process at 250 C for 12 h. The TiO 2 sol was first coated on a fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) substrate using a polymer binder and sintered at 500 C for 30 min. The Cr-TiO 2 sol was then deposited on the TiO 2 layer through the same procedure, thus forming two different layers on the substrate. We found that the photovoltaic efficiency was improved by ca. 18.3% when the double layer was adopted as the photoanode of a DSSC instead of only the TiO 2 layer. We assume that this improvement was caused by the repression of electron recombination occurring in the double layer. Further characterizations were carried out to clarify the function of the double layer.
Nematic liquid crystals (NLCs), 4‐cyano‐4′‐pentylbiphenyl and 4‐cyano‐4′‐octylbiphenyl, were applied as additives to polymer solar cells with P3HT:PC61BM blend films. The incorporation of NLC additives led to a higher absorbance of the blend film, a higher crystallinity of P3HT, closer P3HT chains, larger PC61BM domains and enhanced hole/electron mobilities even without post‐thermal annealing. The non‐annealed PSC with 4 wt.‐% 8CB additives showed an increase in all parameters, resulting in a power conversion efficiency of 3.72% compared to 2.14% of the reference device without NLC additives. magnified image
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