Novel Post-treatment Process by La3+ Modification to TiO2 Photoanode with Enhanced Performance for DSSCs

Photoanodes are critical parts of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), which are composited of TCO (transparent conductive oxide) glasses and nanocrystalline semiconductor film deposited on them. Post-treatment of porous TiO2 film after sintering for the first time was important for the enhancement of the performance of DSSCs. A novel method to modify the surface of TiO2 film was investigated in our work. Photoanodes of DSSCs were treated with the isopropanol solution containing 0.05mol/L La(NO3)(3). After the post-treatment, there was an obvious increase of the overall performance of DSSCs. The photoelectric conversion efficiency (PCE) reached 9.33%, with a raise of 3.3%, compared with the traditional TiCl4 thermal treating method at 70 degrees C for 40min.