Conical-Shaped Titania Nanotubes for Optimized Light Management in DSSCs Reach Back-side Illumination Efficiencies > 8%

Abstract

In the present work, we introduce the anodic growth of conical shaped TiO2 nanotube arrays. These titania nanocones provide a scaffold for dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) structures with significantly improved photon management, providing an optimized absorption profile compared with conventional cylindrical nanotube arrays. Finite difference time domain (FDTD) modelling demonstrates a drastically changed power-absorption characteristic over the tube length. When used in a back-side illumination DSSC configuration, nanocone structures can reach over 60 % higher solar cell conversion efficiency than conventional tubes. The resulting η of ca. 8 % represents one of the highest reported values for Graetzel type DSSCs used under back-side illumination.

References in corpus (4)

• One-dimensional Titanium Dioxide Nanomaterials: Nanotubes
• Hierarchical DSSC structures based on single walled TiO2 nanotube arrays reach back-side illumination solar light conversion efficiency of 8%
• Enhanced Performance of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells based on TiO2 Nanotube Membranes using Optimized Annealing Profile
• Absorption enhancing proximity effects in aperiodic nanowire arrays

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Photocatalysis with TiO2 Nanotubes: Colorful Reactivity and Designing Site-Specific Photocatalytic Centers into TiO2 Nanotubes
• Controlled spacing of self-organized anodic TiO2 nanotubes
• Transparent TiO2 Nanotubes Arrays Directly Grown on Quartz Glass Used in Front- and Back-Side Irradiation Configuration for Photocatalytic H2 Generation