Titania bicontinuous network structures for solar cell applications

Abstract

We report fabrication of a TiO2 interconnected network structure for photovoltaic applications, which was obtained using polystyrene-block-polyethylene oxide diblock copolymer as the templating agent. The synthetic method is simple and highly reproducible. The pore size of the structure is controlled by the amount of Ti precursor provided. The heterojunction solar cells consisting of a TiO2 porous network structure and poly (2-methoxy-5-(2′-ethyl-hexyloxy)-p-phenylene vinylene) (MEH-PPV) showed improved performance with a short circuit current of 3.25mA∕cm2 under AM 1.5 solar illumination. The achieved maximum external quantum efficiency for optimum MEH-PPV thickness was 34%.