A novel simplified approach in fabricating TiO2 photoanodes for dye-sensitized solar cells

Globally, the hydrothermal method is widely adopted in synthesizing TiO2 photoanodes for various applications, including dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Nonetheless, this method typically involves several synthesis steps, and most reported works were intricate and complex to follow. In this work, a reinvented novel methodology for hydrothermal synthesis was successfully developed. The mixed-phase of anatase-rutile TiO2 photoanodes was demonstrated by omitting several intermediate hydrothermal steps. Using the reinvented methodology, the DSSC devices presented a comparable and excellent power conversion efficiency (η = 3.30%) to commercial TiO2-based DSSCs (η = 3.81%). Hence, this preliminary study provided new perspectives toward simplifying wet chemical synthesis TiO2 techniques for the design structure of DSSCs.