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  • Increasing the Efficiency o...
    Xu, Lin; Aumaitre, Cyril; Kervella, Yann; Lapertot, Gérard; Rodríguez‐Seco, Cristina; Palomares, Emilio; Demadrille, Renaud; Reiss, Peter

    Advanced functional materials, April 11, 2018, Letnik: 28, Številka: 15
    Journal Article

    3D inverse opal (3D‐IO) oxides are very appealing nanostructures to be integrated into the photoelectrodes of dye‐sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Due to their periodic interconnected pore network with a high pore volume fraction, they facilitate electrolyte infiltration and enhance light scattering. Nonetheless, preparing 3D‐IO structures directly on nonflat DSSC electrodes is challenging. Herein, 3D‐IO TiO2 structures are prepared by templating with self‐assembled polymethyl methacrylate spheres on glass substrates, impregnation with a mixed TiO2:SiO2 precursor and calcination. The specific surface increases from 20.9 to 30.7 m2 g−1 after SiO2 removal via etching, which leads to the formation of mesopores. The obtained nanostructures are scraped from the substrate, processed as a paste, and deposited on photoelectrodes containing a mesoporous TiO2 layer. This procedure maintains locally the 3D‐IO order. When sensitized with the novel benzothiadiazole dye YKP‐88, DSSCs containing the modified photoelectrodes exhibit an efficiency of 10.35% versus 9.26% for the same devices with conventional photoelectrodes. Similarly, using the ruthenium dye N719 as sensitizer an efficiency increase from 5.31% to 6.23% is obtained. These improvements originate mainly from an increase in the photocurrent density, which is attributed to an enhanced dye loading obtained with the mesoporous 3D‐IO structures due to SiO2 removal. A significant improvement of the photocurrent density and hence the power conversion efficiency of dye‐sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) is achieved by integrating mesoporous 3D inverse opal TiO2 nanostructures into the photoelectrode. Using an organic dye for sensitization leads to efficiencies up to 10.35%, which is the highest value reported using inverse opal structures as photoactive component in the photoelectrode.