Optimized porous rutile TiO2 nanorod arrays for enhancing the efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells

Abstract

Highly ordered rutile TiO2 nanorod arrays (NRAs) are promising architectures in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs). However, the efficiency of DSCs based on such photoanodes is still relatively low, largely due to the limited internal surface area. Herein, we report that highly oriented rutile TiO2 NRAs with film thickness up to ∼30 μm was developed by a facile hydrothermal method. More importantly, an optimized porous rutile TiO2 NRAs with a large internal surface area was fabricated on the FTO (fluorine-doped tin oxide) substrate via a secondary hydrothermal treatment and when applied as the photoanodes in DSCs, a record efficiency of 7.91% was achieved.