Effects of Insulation Coating with Metal Salt on the Performance of Organic-Inorganic Hybrid Solar Cells

This work reports on the preparation of modified TiO2 electrodes, which could be applied to the photoanodes in a dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). TiO2 layer was formed on a FTO (fluorine-doped tin oxide) coated glass via doctor-blade method and post heat treatment. Then, the various metal hydroxides and metal oxides were selectively deposited onto the TiO2 layers via electrophoretic deposition and annealing process to give modified TiO2 layer in DSSCs. When metal hydroxide-deposited electrodes were employed in DSSCs, photovoltaic efficiencies were improved by ca. 3–16% compared to those of the cells with bare TiO2 electrodes. However, it was found that the efficiencies regressed when the metal hydroxides were converted to metal oxides via the annealing process.