Polyol thermolysis synthesis of TiO2 nanoparticles and its paste formulation to fabricate photoanode for dye-sensitized solar cells

Titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) nanoparticles (NPs) were prepared by a simple polyol thermolysis process using various mole ratios of titanium tetrachloride (TiCl 4 ) and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP). The prepared TiO 2 NPs were characterized by TG/DTA, XRD, SEM, and BET analysis. The TiO 2 NPs obtained using 0.1 M of TiCl 4 and 0.02 M of PVP have high surface area with lesser particles size than the same obtained using 0.1 M of TiCl 4 with other mole ratios of PVP. The high surface area TiO 2 NPs were used to formulate TiO 2 paste. The impact of ethyl cellulose, terpineol, and dibutyl phthalate in the formulation of TiO 2 paste was optimized with respect to standard TiO 2 paste ( Dyesol Ltd. ) on the adsorption of dye was studied by UV–Vis spectroscopy. The photovoltaic performance of DSSCs fabricated using the formulated TiO 2 paste has achieved 97.83 % of power conversion efficiency (PCE) (η = 4.5 %) with respect to the standard TiO 2 paste ( Dyesol Ltd. ) and its PCE were found to be 4.6 % (η). This PCE value was nearly closer to that of the same DSSC fabricated using the standard TiO 2 paste ( Dyesol Ltd. ) and higher than the P25 TiO 2 ( Degussa ) paste and its achieved PCE were found to be 86.04 %.