Synthesis of TiO2 nanorice and their improved dye sensitized solar cells performance

TiO2 nanostructures with different morphologies were successfully synthesized via a solvothermal reaction of titanium isopropoxide and acetic acid. The synthesized TiO2 nanostructures were characterizated in detail by powder X-ray diffractometry, scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and Raman etc. technologies. The effect of growth time on the composition, morphology and crystal phase of synthesized TiO2 nanostructures were studied, and corresponding photovoltaic performance of dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) fabricated from TiO2 nanorice was also investigated. The DSSC based on the 24 h anatase TiO2 nanorice photoelectrode shows an overall light-to-electricity conversion efficiency of 7.45% accompanying a short-circuit current density of 18.83 mA cm−2, an open-circuit voltage of 788 mV and fill factor of 0.5, which is much higher than that of 12 h (5.25%), 16 h (5.73%) and 20 h (6.20%) samples. The significant enhancement of short-circuit current density and power conversion efficiency for the 24 h nanorice-based DSSC is mainly attributed to its larger dye loading amount.