Enhancement of light harvesting in dye-sensitized solar cells with TiCl4 treatment and high-reflective Pt/FTO/Al counterelectrode

This study attempts to enhance the performance of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) by integrating the TiCl
₄
treatment on porous TiO
₂
and a novel high-reflective counter electrode, Pt/FTO/Al. Experimental results indicate that light scattered by TiCl
₄
-treated large TiO
₂
particle sizes and light reflected by the counter electrode decrease the total transmission of the modified cell. Additionally, the modified DSSCs significantly increase the short-circuit photocurrent density (J
_sc
) by about 34% higher than that of the standard (STD) cell, resulting in a 5.62% energy conversion efficiency (η), i.e. about 42% higher than that of a standard cell. Moreover, incident monochromatic photon-to-current conversion efficiency (IPCE) spectra of the modified DSSCs reveal a higher value than that of a standard cell, especially in the higher wavelength range.