Heterostructured TiO2/NiTiO3 Nanorod Arrays for Inorganic Sensitized Solar Cells with Significantly Enhanced Photovoltaic Performance and Stability

Organic dyes used in the conventional dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) suffer from poor light stability and high cost. In this work, we demonstrate a new inorganic sensitized solar cell based on ordered one-dimensional semiconductor nanorod arrays of TiO2/NiTiO3 (NTO) heterostructures prepared via...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:ACS applied materials & interfaces 2018-04, Vol.10 (14), p.11580-11586
Main Authors: Li, Yue-Ying, Wang, Jian-Gan, Sun, Huan-Huan, Wei, Bingqing
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:Organic dyes used in the conventional dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) suffer from poor light stability and high cost. In this work, we demonstrate a new inorganic sensitized solar cell based on ordered one-dimensional semiconductor nanorod arrays of TiO2/NiTiO3 (NTO) heterostructures prepared via a facile two-step hydrothermal approach. The semiconductor heterostructure arrays are highly desirable and promising for DSSCs because of their direct charge transport capability and slow charge recombination rate. The low-cost NTO inorganic semiconductor possesses an appropriate band gap that matches well with TiO2, which behaves like a “dye” to enable efficient light harvesting and fast electron–hole separation. The solar cells constructed by the ordered TiO2/NTO heterostructure photoanodes show a significantly improved power conversion efficiency, high fill factor, and more promising, outstanding life stability. The present work will open up an avenue to design heterostructured inorganics for high-performance solar cells.
ISSN:1944-8244
1944-8252
DOI:10.1021/acsami.7b17044