Strong Efficiency Enhancement of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells Using a La-Modified TiCl₄ Treatment of Mesoporous TiO₂ Electrodes

Enhanced efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells based on Mg and La co-doped TiO 2 photoanodes

“…Recently, K. Kakiage [20] communicated a Voc of 1.2V for Mg doped TiO2 anodes with a more positive redox potential electrolyte (+4V) Br3 -/Br -redox couple, but with a lower short circuit current density ( SC J ) relative to pure TiO2 anodes. Another interesting metal dopant into TiO2 that has significantly improved SC J values in DSSC is Lanthanum (La) [22,23]. TiO2 doped with La exhibits a reduction in particle size and an increase in dye adsorption.…”

“…Increase in dye adsorption amounts can improve electron lifetimes and transport [24]. This increase in dye adsorption is due to an increased density of oxygen vacancies [22] and surface modifications [23], and deionized water (DI), acetic acid (>99%, Sigma -Aldrich), triton TM X -100 (laboratory grade, Sigma-Aldrich), ruthenium N719 dye cis-diisothiocyanato-bis(tetrabutylammonium 2,2ʼ-bipyridyl-4,4ʼ-dicarboxylato) ruthenium(II), DYSOL, Switzerland, Australia). …”

Zirconium Oxide Post-treatment for TiO2 Photoelectrodes in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

“…Compared to the P25 sample, the TiCl 4 -post-treated TiO 2 and Zr oxide-post-treated TiO 2 samples show interparticle connections with new nanoparticles less than 2 nm in size. Thus, the TiCl 4 and Zr oxide-post-on TiO 2 photoelectrodes can improve the connection of nanoparticles and form new nanoparticle by nucleation [3,5,6,7].…”

Lanthanides in Solar Energy Conversion

“…Less clear-cut conclusion is drawn in the report by Yahav et al (Yahav et al, 2011). Here, the methodology differs in that the TiO 2 electrode is first treated with a lanthanum acetate solution (Table 6, entry 5).…”

“…Under irradiation with wavelengths larger than 720 nm (60 mW cm À2 ), this cell had a 2.6-fold larger conversion yield (0.15%) than a reference cell without upconverting layer ( ¼ 0.04%). How much is really due to upconversion is not known since in view of the larger size of the doped TiO 2 nanocrystallites (68 nm vs. 19 nm), these will also act as light scattering particles; moreover, the doped Ln III ions may act as p-dopants, see above, La III (Yahav et al, 2011) and Y III . How much is really due to upconversion is not known since in view of the larger size of the doped TiO 2 nanocrystallites (68 nm vs. 19 nm), these will also act as light scattering particles; moreover, the doped Ln III ions may act as p-dopants, see above, La III (Yahav et al, 2011) and Y III .…”