Hydrothermal Fabrication of Hierarchically Anatase TiO2 Nanowire arrays on FTO Glass for Dye-sensitized Solar Cells

Abstract

Hierarchical anatase TiO₂ nano-architecture arrays consisting of long TiO₂ nanowire trunk and numerous short TiO₂ nanorod branches on transparent conductive fluorine-doped tin oxide glass are successfully synthesized for the first time through a facile one-step hydrothermal route without any surfactant and template. Dye-sensitized solar cells based on the hierarchical anatase TiO₂ nano-architecture array photoelectrode of 18 μm in length shows a power conversion efficiency of 7.34% because of its higher specific surface area for adsorbing more dye molecules and superior light scattering capacity for boosting the light-harvesting efficiency. The present photovoltaic performance is the highest value for the reported TiO₂ nanowires array photoelectrode.