Investigation of electrophoretic parameters of TiO2 nanoparticles for fabricating photoanode of dye sensitized solar cells

Semiconducting photoanode plays an important role in converting photon to electron in dye sensitized solar cells. In the present work, electrophoretic deposition parameters for fabricating photoanode of dye sensitized solar cell were investigated. The effect of solution chemistry on stability of TiO2 nanoparticle suspension and film formation ability was studied. The suspension with the best performance was selected. Then, the effect of iodine and water concentration and also the effect of deposition time and voltage on electrophoretic deposition of TiO2 coating were investigated. Finally, the electrophoretic deposited coating was used as photoanode of dye sensitized solar cell and its photovoltaic performance was evaluated. Current- voltage curve was measured and recorded by the xenon lamp. Dye sensitized solar cell with photoanode of 13 µm thickness with voltage and time of electrophoretic deposition of, respectively, 30 V and 8 minute, showed the short-circuit current of 0.93 mA/cm2, open-circuit voltage of 455 mV and energy conversion efficiency of 0.18%.