The Research Of Preparation And Photoelectric Properties Of TiO₂ Nanorods-based Composite Photoanode

With the recent increasing amount of energy consumption of humanity, while the traditional fossil fuels are drying up, people have to face the problem of energy crisis. To solve this qeustion, newly sustainable energy is on the way. Along with the development of science and technology, solar cell, as solar energy has advantages of extremely rich and renewable, no pollution, no geographical restriction and so on, has gained increasing foucs. Because of the relatively simple preparation and the cheap raw materials, sensitized nanocrystalline solar cells of Quantum dots-sensitized solar cell(QDSSC) and dye-sensitized solar cell(DSSC) have become hot spots in the research of solar cells. The structure of sensitized nanocrystalline solar cell includes transparent conductive glass, wide band gap oxiede semiconductor, photosensitive agent, electrolyte and counter electrode. Although some progress have been made, the energy conversion efficiency and application of the sensitized nanocrystalline solar cells are still lagging behind those of silicon solar cells. In recent years, the researchs about sensitized nanocrystalline solar cells are offen focused on new sensitizers or co-sensitization or single oxide semiconductor photoanodes, hybrid and multilayer photoanodes are less reported. Inorder to further improve the performance of the sensitized nanocrystalline solar cells, based on the troditional TiO2 nanorods(NRs) photoanode, we made the following researchs:(1) The TiO2 NRs on FTO substrate were obtained by hydrothermal method, we obtained the TiO2 NRs successfully under the condition of our lab. We induced Au(A) NPs and Au@SiO2(AS) NPs into TiO2 NRs photoanods, and fabricated TiO2 NRs/ Au NPs(TA) and TiO2 NRs / Au@SiO2 NPs(TAS) photoanodes. Then, CdS quantum dots-sensitized solar cell and N719 dye-sensitized solar cell were made. The results indicates that the large absorption of Au and Au@SiO2 NPs would surely influnce the aborption of CdS QDs and N719 dyes, thus, affect the properties of the corresponding solar cell.(2) Inorder to utilize the LSPRs effect of Au NPs, we made a layer of TiO2 NPs between TA and CdS QDs, the TiO2 NRs/ Au NPs/ TiO2 NPs/ CdS QDs(TATQ) photoanode. The experiment results suggest that TATQ well combined the scattering and porous properties of TiO2 NPs, the LSPRs effect of Au NPs and the eletronic transportation property of one dimensional TiO2 NRs. The value of Jsc of TATQ-based CdS QDSSC has been promoted much and reached 9.96 mA/cm2, the power conversion efficiency was 2.0%.(3) Based on TAS electrode, we made a passivation layer(PL) of TiO2 on the surface of TAS, thus, we got a Au@SiO2 doping-liked TiO2 photoanode, TiO2 NRs/ Au@SiO2 NPs/ TiO2 PL/ N719 dyes(TASTN). Compared with the properties of TN, TASN, TTN,TTASN, TASTN based dye-sensitized solar cells, the results seggest the TAST photoanode had improved the absorption of N719 dyes and also kept the enhancement of visiable light absorption induced by the effect of LSPRs of Au@SiO2 NPs. The dye-sensitized solar cell based on TASTN were with the power conversion efficiency of 2.34% and had got a high voltage and high current.