Enhanced electron extraction from template-free 3D nanoparticulate transparent conducting oxide (TCO) electrodes for dye-sensitized solar cells

The semiconducting metal oxide-based photoanodes in the most efficient dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) desires a low doping level to promote charge separation, which, however, limits the subsequent electron extraction in the slow diffusion regime. These conflicts are mitigated in a new photoanode design that decouples the charge separation and extraction functions. A three-dimensional highly doped fluorinated SnO ₂ (FTO) nanoparticulate film serves as conductive core for low-resistance and drift-assisted charge extraction while a thin, low-doped conformal TiO ₂ shell maintains a large resistance to recombination (and therefore long charge lifetime). EIS reveals that the electron transit time is reduced by orders of magnitude, whereas the recombination resistance remains in the range of traditional nanoparticle TiO ₂ photoelectrodes. © 2012 American Chemical Society.