Solar-to-Electric Performance Enhancement by Titanium Oxide Nanoparticles Coated with Porous Yttrium Oxide for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

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• 作者：Bingxin Zhao ; Jinshu Wang ; Hongyi Li ; Yue Xu ; Haijun Yu ; Xinjian Jia ; Xiaofei Zhang ; Yaowu Hao
• 刊名：ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering
• 出版年：2015
• 出版时间：July 6, 2015
• 年：2015
• 卷：3
• 期：7
• 页码：1518-1525
• 全文大小：542K
• ISSN：2168-0485

文摘

TiO₂鈥揧₂O₃ core鈥搒hell nanoparticles for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have been fabricated by a solvothermal technique. The heterostructure of TiO₂ nanoparticles coated with porous Y₂O₃ is confirmed with transmission electron microscopy. The bonding of the Y₂O₃ coating on the TiO₂ surface is quantitatively analyzed in terms of the Lifshitz鈥搗an der Waals and electrostatic contributions to the surface free energy of the particles. TiO₂ and Y₂O₃ constitute a core鈥搒hell heterojunction because the Fermi levels merge; this increases the open-circuit voltage. Higher recombination resistances are obtained in DSSCs with porous Y₂O₃-coated TiO₂ compared with those in the reference cells, indicating 鈥渂ackscattering鈥?inhibition of the porous Y₂O₃ barrier on TiO₂ nanoparticles. Moreover, smaller transport resistances and longer electron lifetimes are achieved in DSSCs with TiO₂鈥揧₂O₃ core鈥搒hell nanoparticles. Compared with a reference cell, the V_OC of a DSSC with a partial Y₂O₃ coating on the surface of the TiO₂ nanoparticles improves from 683 to 738 mV and the J_sc from 14.15 to 15.35 mA路cm^鈥?, whereas the conversion efficiency increases by 15.2%.