We improve the conversion efficiency of Ag₂S quantum dot (QD)-sensitized TiO₂ nanotube-array electrodes by chemically depositing ZnO recombination barrier layer on plain TiO₂ nanotube-array electrodes. The optical properties, structural properties, compositional analysis, and photoelectrochemistry properties of prepared electrodes have been investigated. It is found that for the prepared electrodes, with increasing the cycles of Ag₂S deposition, the photocurrent density and the conversion efficiency increase. In addition, as compared to the Ag₂S QD-sensitized TiO₂ nanotube-array electrode without the ZnO layers, the conversion efficiency of the electrode with the ZnO layers increases significantly due to the formation of efficient recombination layer between the TiO₂ nanotube array and electrolyte.

We present a novel method to fabricate complete and highly oriented anodic titanium oxide (ATO) nano-porous structures with uniform and parallel nanochannels. ATO nano-porous structures are fabricated by anodizing a Ti-foil in two different organic viscous electrolytes at room temperature using a two-step anodizing method. TiO₂nanotubes covered with a few nanometer thin nano-porous layer is produced when the first and the second anodization are carried out in the same electrolyte. However, a complete titania nano-porous (TNP) structures are obtained when the second anodization is conducted in a viscous electrolyte when compared to the first one. TNP structure was attributed to the suppression of F-rich layer dissolution between the cell boundaries in the viscous electrolyte. The structural morphologies were examined by field emission scanning electron microscope. The average pore diameter is approximately 70 nm, while the average inter-pore distance is approximately 130 nm. These TNP structures are useful to fabricate other nanostructure materials and nanodevices.

We report a new semitransparent inverted polymer solar cell (PSC) with a structure of glass/FTO/nc-TiO2/P3HT:PCBM/MoO3/Ag/MoO3. Because high-temperature annealing which decreased the conductivity of indium tin oxide (ITO) must be handled in the process of preparation of nanocrystalline titanium oxide (nc-TiO2), we replace glass/ITO with a glass/fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) substrate to improve the device performance. The experimental results show that the replacing FTO substrate enhances light transmittance between 400 and 600 nm and does not change sheet resistance after annealing treatment. The dependence of device performances on resistivity, light transmittance, and thickness of the MoO3/Ag/MoO3 film was investigated. High power conversion efficiency (PCE) was achieved for FTO substrate inverted PSCs, which showed about 75% increase compared to our previously reported ITO substrate device at different thicknesses of the MoO3/Ag/MoO3 transparent electrode films illuminated from the FTO side (bottom side) and about 150% increase illuminated from the MoO3/Ag/MoO3 side (top side).

In this work, the solution-processed CH₃NH₃PbI₃ perovskite/copper indium disulfide (CuInS₂) planar heterojunction solar cells with Al₂O₃ as a scaffold were fabricated at a temperature as low as 250°C for the first time, in which the indium tin oxide (ITO)-coated glass instead of the fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO)-coated glass was used as the light-incidence electrode and the solution-processed CuInS₂ layer was prepared to replace the commonly used TiO₂ layer in previously reported perovskite-based solar cells. The influence of the thickness of the as-prepared CuInS₂ film on the performance of the ITO/CuInS₂(n)/Al₂O₃/(CH₃NH₃)PbI₃/Ag cells was investigated. The ITO/CuInS₂(2)/Al₂O₃/(CH₃NH₃)PbI₃/Ag cell showed the best performance and achieved power conversion efficiency up to 5.30%.

An improvement in the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the inverted organic solar cell (ITO/nc-TiO2/P3HT:PCBM/PEDOT:PSS/Ag) is realized by depositing CdS quantum dots (QDs) on a nanocrystalline TiO2 (nc-TiO2) film as a light absorption material and an electron-selective material. The CdS QDs were deposited via a chemical bath deposition (CBD) method. Our results show that the best PCE of 3.37% for the ITO/nc-TiO2/CdS/P3HT:PCBM/PEDOT:PSS/Ag cell is about 1.13 times that (2.98%) of the cell without CdS QDs (i.e., ITO/nc-TiO2/P3HT:PCBM/PEDOT:PSS/Ag). The improved PCE can be mainly attributed to the increased light absorption and the reduced recombination of charge carriers from the TiO2 to the P3HT:PCBM film due to the introduced CdS QDs.

The photocurrent in bilayer polymer photovoltaic cells is dominated by the exciton dissociation efficiency at donor/acceptor interface. An analytical model is developed for the photocurrent-voltage characteristics of the bilayer polymer/TiO₂ photovoltaic cells. The model gives an analytical expression for the exciton dissociation efficiency at the interface, and explains the dependence of the photocurrent of the devices on the internal electric field, the polymer and TiO₂ layer thicknesses. Bilayer polymer/TiO₂ cells consisting of poly[2-methoxy-5-(2-ethylhexyloxy)-1,4-phenylenevinylene] (MEH-PPV) and TiO₂, with different thicknesses of the polymer and TiO₂ films, were prepared for experimental purposes. The experimental results for the prepared bilayer MEH-PPV/TiO₂ cells under different conditions are satisfactorily fitted to the model. Results show that increasing TiO₂ or the polymer layer in thickness will reduce the exciton dissociation efficiency in the device and further the photocurrent. It is found that the photocurrent is determined by the competition between the exciton dissociation and charge recombination at the donor/acceptor interface, and the increase in photocurrent under a higher incident light intensity is due to the increased exciton density rather than the increase in the exciton dissociation efficiency.