Improved Performance of Quasi-solid State Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells After Photoanode Surface Treatment with Novel Materials

At the present work, we investigate the effect of TiO2 nanocrystalline films surface treatment with two titanium based organic materials using chemical bath deposition technique. The two novel materials are titanium(IV) (triethanolaminato) isopropoxide and titanium(IV) bis(ammonium lactate)dihydroxide which are structural different from TiCl4 which is a common material for TiO2 post-treatment. The treated and untreated films are examined as negative photoelectrodes in quasi-solid state dye sensitized solar cells. The cells were characterized in terms of their electrical characteristics while direct comparisons based on the structural properties of the films were also made. Both treated films as photoelectrodes in dye sensitized solar cells exhibited better performance compared to the untreated films with recorded 26–30 % increase to the overall efficiency depending on the material used for the treatment. Dark current measurements were also performed in order to evaluate the effect of both materials as reducers of charge recombination rates.