Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells Based on WO₃

Abstract

In research on alternative photoanode materials for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs), there is rarely any report on WO(3), probably due to its acidic surface and more positive (vs NHE) conduction band edge position compared to TiO(2) and ZnO. For the first time, dye-sensitized solar cells based on porous WO(3) nanoparticle films were successfully fabricated with efficiency of up to 0.75%. The multicrystalline structure of WO(3) was examined by Raman spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction analysis. It was found that significant performance enhancement can be obtained from treating the WO(3) nanoparticle film with TiCl(4); the TiCl(4)-treated WO(3) DSCs were recorded with efficiency reaching 1.46%.