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Materials and Processes for Solar Fuel Production pp 201–210Cite as

Passivating the Surface of TiO2 Photoelectrodes with Nb2O5 and Al2O3 for High-Efficiency Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

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Part of the book series: Nanostructure Science and Technology ((NST,volume 174))

Abstract

In this contribution, we reported a method to passivate the surface of the TiO2 photoelectrode with Nb2O5 and Al2O3 layer, and its application for the dye-sensitized solar cells. The surface of TiO2 photoelectrode was passivated by depositing Nb2O5 and Al2O3 layer in turn using surface sol–gel technology. After the TiO2 photoelectrode was passivated by Nb2O5 layer, the efficiency of the TiO2/Nb2O5 cell increased from 3.6 to 4.0 %. The Al2O3 layer on the TiO2/Nb2O5 electrode further suppressed the generation of the dark current, resulting in 25 % improvement in device performance comparing with that of the TiO2/Nb2O5 cell. The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy was used to investigate the influence of the Nb2O5 and Al2O3 layer on the Helmholtz layer capacitance of the TiO2 electrode, and provided the evidences for the formation of the energy barriers.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Key Basic Research Program of China (2011CB935704, 2014CB931803), National Natural Science Foundation of China (21003008), Beijing Natural Science Foundation (2133066), “Young Talents Plan” for the Universities in Beijing City, Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (YWF-14-HHXY-004), and Scientific Research Foundation for the Returned Overseas Chinese Scholars, State Education Ministry of China.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Bio-Inspired Smart Interfacial Science and Technology of Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Environment, Beihang University, No. 37 Xueyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100191, China

    Zhaoyue Liu & Lin Li

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  1. Zhaoyue Liu
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  2. Lin Li
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Correspondence to Zhaoyue Liu .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. National Centre for Catalysis Research, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India

    Balasubramanian Viswanathan

  2. Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada, USA

    Vaidyanathan (Ravi) Subramanian

  3. Pohang University of Science & Tech., Pohang, Korea, Republic of (South Korea)

    Jae Sung Lee

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Liu, Z., Li, L. (2014). Passivating the Surface of TiO2 Photoelectrodes with Nb2O5 and Al2O3 for High-Efficiency Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells. In: Viswanathan, B., Subramanian, V., Lee, J. (eds) Materials and Processes for Solar Fuel Production. Nanostructure Science and Technology, vol 174. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-1628-3_10

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