Influence of screen printed nanowires/Nanoparticles TiO₂ nanocomposite layer on properties of dye-Sensitized solar cells

Semiconducting nanowires indicates several characteristics making them interesting for solar cells applications. One promising solution in DSSCs is to increase the electron diffusion length in the photoanode by using the nanowires/nanoparticle TiO2 composite layer. In this work two pastes for screen printing were prepared. In one active component were TiO2 nanowires in the second TiO2 nanoparticle. In both cases, the binder and carrier were terpineol and ethyl cellulose. The pastes were screen printed onto the TCO glass alternately in varied order and with different number of prints. The best efficiency of as prepared dye-sensitized solar cells was ∼ 4.5%. The research has shown the possibility of using screen printed nanowires/nanoparticles TiO2 nanocomposite layer as element of photoanode of dye-sensitized solar cells. These results show that employing TiO2 nanowires represents a promising approach for further improving the efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells.