Improvement in dye-sensitized solar cells with a ZnO-coated TiO2 electrode by rf magnetron sputtering

Abstract

A surface modification method was carried out by rf magnetron sputtering to fabricate ZnO-coated $\mathrm{Ti}{\mathrm{O}}_2$ electrodes $(\mathrm{Ti}{\mathrm{O}}_2∕\mathrm{Zn}\mathrm{O})$ for improving the performance of dye-sensitized solar cells. The $\mathrm{Ti}{\mathrm{O}}_2∕\mathrm{Zn}\mathrm{O}$ electrodes had been characterized by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, UV-visible spectrophotometer, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The study results revealed that the $\mathrm{Ti}{\mathrm{O}}_2$ modification suppresses interfacial recombination. Sputtering ZnO for $3\min$ on $5\mu \mathrm{m}$ $\mathrm{Ti}{\mathrm{O}}_2$ greatly improves all cell parameters, resulting in increasing efficiency from 4.76% to 6.55%.