Reduced Graphene Oxide Modified TiO2 Nanoparticles Composites for Improved Performance of Dye-sensitized Solar Cells

As a two-dimensional (2D) nanostructure, reduced graphene oxide (rGO) has high specific surface area and excellent conductivity. In this paper, we obtain the TiO2/rGO (TG) composite via a simple mechanical stirring the mixtures of anatase TiO2 nanoparticles and graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets followed by a calcination process and apply it as photoanode material in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). rGO in the TG photoanode can inhibit charge recombination and increase the short-circuit current density (J(sc)) and thus improve the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the DSSCs. Moreover, the layered structure rGO increase the dye absorption in the TG-based photoanode and enhance the light harvesting efficiency. As a result, J(sc) and PCE of DSSCs based on TG photoanode have been considerably increased from 9.75 mA/cm(-2) to 10.45 mA/cm(-2), 3.87 % to 4.16 %, compared with pure TiO2 photoanode, enhanced by7.2% and 7.5%, respectively.