An Investigation on the Photovoltaic Properties of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells Based on Fe3O4–TiO2 Composited Photoelectrode

In this paper, Fe
₃
O
₄
-titanium dioxide (TiO
₂
) composited photoelectrode was prepared by spin coating method. The effects of incorporating Fe
₃
O
₄
into the TiO
₂
photoelectrode of dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) were investigated in detail by atomic force microscope, solar simulator, X-ray diffraction, UV-visible spectroscopy, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. Compared with the photovoltaic conversion efficiency of 2.35% of DSSC based on TiO
₂
pure photoelectrode, the photovoltaic conversion efficiency of 3.54% was obtained. The experimental results show that the Fe
₃
O
₄
acted as a catalyst to provide another electron pathway for DSSC, which could lower the condition of electron recombination. Moreover, it could be found from Nyquist plot that the resistance at the interface between electrolyte and TiO
₂
film increased for DSSC after incorporating Fe
₃
O
₄
into the TiO
₂
photoelectrode, which indicated that the condition of electron recombination was restrained.