Double-Layer Electrode Based on TiO₂ Nanotubes Arrays for Enhancing Photovoltaic Properties in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

The present work reports a rapid and facile method to fabricate a novel double-layer TiO2 photoanode, which is based on highly ordered TiO2 nanotube arrays and monodispersive scattering microspheres. This double-layer TiO2 sphere/TNTA photoanode have got many unique structural and optical properties from TiO2 scattering microspheres, such as high specific surface area, multiple interparticle scattering, and efficient light-harvesting. Results indicate that this as-fabricated double-layer TiO2 sphere/TNTA front-illumination dye-sensitized solar cell, which is fabricated from the TiO2 nanotube arrays with a 17.4 μm length after TiCl4 treatment, exhibits a pronounced power conversion efficiency of 7.24% under an AM1.5 G irradiation, which can be attributed to the increased incident photon-to-current conversion and light-harvesting efficiency.