Improvement in dye-sensitized solar cells with a ZnO-coated TiO2 electrode by rf magnetron sputtering

Abstract

A surface modification method was carried out by rf magnetron sputtering to fabricate ZnO-coated TiO2 electrodes (TiO2∕ZnO) for improving the performance of dye-sensitized solar cells. The TiO2∕ZnO electrodes had been characterized by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, UV-visible spectrophotometer, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The study results revealed that the TiO2 modification suppresses interfacial recombination. Sputtering ZnO for 3min on 5μm TiO2 greatly improves all cell parameters, resulting in increasing efficiency from 4.76% to 6.55%.