Modern dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) technology was built upon nanoparticle wide bandgap semiconductor photoanodes. While versatile and robust, the sintered nanoparticle architecture exhibits exceedingly slow electron transport that ultimately restricts the diversity of feasible redox mediators. The small collection of suitable mediators limits both our understanding of an intriguing heterog...

We report a scalably synthesized WO3/BiVO4 core/shell nanowire photoanode in which BiVO4 is the primary light-absorber and WO3 acts as an electron conductor. These core/shell nanowires achieve the highest product of light absorption and charge separation efficiencies among BiVO4-based photoanodes to date and, even without an added catalyst, produce a photocurrent of 3.1 mA/cm(2) under simulated...

Dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) use low-cost materials, feature tunable molecular sensitizers, and exhibit quantum efficiencies near unity. These advantageous features can be exploited in the context of solar water splitting by functionalizing DSSCs with catalysts for water oxidation and reduction. This article will cover the development of photoanodes for water splitting DSSCs from the pers...

We report the facile fabrication of three-dimensional (3D) silicon/hematite core/shell nanowire arrays decorated with gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and their potential application for sunlight-driven solar water splitting. The hematite and AuNPs respectively play crucial catalytic and plasmonic photosensitization roles, while silicon absorbs visible light and generates high photocurrent. Under sim...

High photoelectrochemical water oxidation efficiency can be achieved through an efficient photogenerated holes transfer pathway. Constructing a photoanode semiconductor heterojunction with close interface contact is effective tactic to improve the of carrier separation. Here, we reported novel p-n junction Ti:Fe2O3/Cu2O (n-Ti:Fe2O3 and p-Cu2O), Cu2O being obtained by in situ reduction CuAl-LDH ...

Here we report the fabrication of highly transparent graphene oxide (GO) reinforced TiO2 nanocomposite thin film and demonstrate that it enhances power conversion efficiency dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) when used as photoanode. TiO2-GO films with varying GO concentrations are deposited on top fluorine doped tin (FTO) coated glass substrate by easy, cost-effective sol-gel spin coating techn...

As a novel two-dimensional (2D) material, graphene shows great benefits in electric and material science. Compared to 1D nanomaterials, it may show more excellent properties. Here, we introduced graphene as 2D bridges into the nanocrystalline electrodes of dye-sensitized solar cells, which brought a faster electron transport and a lower recombination, together with a higher light scattering. On...

Decatungstate acid (DA) was utilized to modify TiO2 in the photoanode of dye sensitized solar cells. The photo-induced electron lifetime was evidently improved and the recombination was greatly inhibited. DA can introduce levels of impurities and lower the Fermi level through a doping effect and thus increase the photocurrent. Moreover, the improved charge carrier density can be found through e...

Highly ordered anodic TiO2 nanotube arrays fabricated by electrochemical anodization were sensitized with ruthenium dye N-719 to yield dye-sensitized TiO2 nanotube solar cells. Rational surface treatments on photoanode TiO2 nanotubes markedly improved the device performance. With TiCl4 treatment, in conjunction with oxygen plasma exposure under optimized conditions, dye-sensitized TiO2 nanotube...

A photoanode material ZnO nanoflower (ZNFs) for efficient dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) was prepared. This unique structure can significantly increase the specific surface area and amount of light absorption, leading to a higher short-circuit current density. Furthermore, ZNFs resulted in closer spacing between the nanorods and more direct conduction paths for electrons, leading to higher op...