Titania particle size effect on the overall performance of dye-sensitized solar cells

In this paper, we report the solar cell performance of titania (TiO2) film electrodes with various particle sizes. It was found that the TiO2 nanoparticle film with smaller particles similar to 10 nm in diameter resulted in a lower overall light conversion efficiency of similar to 1.4% with an open-circuit voltage of similar to 730 mV, a short-circuit current density of similar to 3.6 mA/cm(2), and a fill factor of similar to 54%. Larger particles similar to 23 nm in diameter resulted in a higher efficiency similar to 5.2% with an open-circuit voltage of similar to 730 mV, a short-circuit current density of similar to 12.2 mA/cm(2), and a fill factor of similar to 58%. Although it was anticipated that particles with smaller diameters would adsorb more dye because of their larger surface area, it was found that particles with larger diameters had better dye adsorption for increased electron-hole generation, resulting in higher short-circuit current density and overall light conversion efficiency. Larger particles were shown to have better dye adsorption, indicating that films consisting of larger particles had greater effective surface area for greater photon absorption and electron-hole generation.