Efficiencies of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells with Hollow SnO2 Nanofiber/TiO2 Nanoparticle Composite Photoanodes.

ABSTRACT

In this study, we present dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) with improved efficiencies by using SnO2/TiO2 composite photoanodes containing SnO2 at various concentrations. The composites consisted of hollow nanofibers (h-NFs) of SnO2 and TiO2 nanoparticles (NPs). The combination of the large surface area of the NPs and the efficient charge transport in the h-NFs make the use of the SnO2/TiO2 composites advantageous. DSSCs in which composite photoanodes with 50 wt% h-NFs were incorporated showed enhanced efficiencies that were 20% higher than the efficiencies of cells containing TiO2 NP-based photoanodes. These results indicated the improved electron diffusion length and shorter electron transfer time in the composite structures due to the crosslinking between h-NFs and NPs.