Low temperature transferring of anodized TiO_2 nanotube-array onto a flexible substrate for dye-sensitized solar cells

In this paper, free-standing TiO2 nanotube membranes are transferred onto ITO/PET substrates using binder-free TiO2 pastes. Followed by laser sintering, the electrical contacts between the TiO2 nanotube membrane, nanoparticles and substrate can be efficiently promoted, which prevents from damaging to the plastic conductive substrate. The efficiency of 4.65% is achieved without traditional high temperature sintering and mechanical compression, which shows great potential application in TiO2 nanotube based flexible dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs).