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The increased interface charge transfer in dye-sensitized solar cells based on well-ordered TiO2 nanotube arrays with different lengths

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Abstract

The well-ordered TiO2 nanotube arrays with controlled aspect ratio are fabricated via potentiostatic anodization. The aspect ratio of TiO2 nanotube array can be tuned conveniently by changing the water content in electrolyte and anodization time. The formation of well-ordered TiO2 nanotube array is good for the photogenerated electron transfer. So, the well-ordered TiO2 nanotube array photoelectrodes have been used to fabricate dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). It is found that, with the optimum nanotube length and aspect ratio, DSSCs with TiO2 nanotube array photoelectrodes show better photoelectric conversion efficiency (2.60%) than that with TiO2 nanoparticles on Ti foil photoelectrode. It is elucidated by the interfacial electron transport of DSSCs, which are characterized quantitatively, using the electrochemical impedance spectra. The DSSC with optimal nanotube length and aspect ratio displays the fastest interfacial electron transfer and longer electron lifetime.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Fund of China (Grant Nos. 51302047, 51072038, 51272050, and 61205113), the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (NECT-10-0049), the Outstanding Youth Fund of Heilongjiang Province (Grant No. JC201008), the 111 project (B13015) of Ministry Education of China to the Harbin Engineering University, and also the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China for the financial support of this research.

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  1. College of Science, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin, 150001, People’s Republic of China

    Lihong Qi, Zhuoxun Yin, Shen Zhang, Qiuyun Ouyang, Chunyan Li & Yujin Chen

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  1. Lihong Qi
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  2. Zhuoxun Yin
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  3. Shen Zhang
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Correspondence to Lihong Qi.

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Qi, L., Yin, Z., Zhang, S. et al. The increased interface charge transfer in dye-sensitized solar cells based on well-ordered TiO2 nanotube arrays with different lengths. Journal of Materials Research 29, 745–752 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2014.50

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