Atomic Layer Deposition of TiO2 on Mesoporous nanoITO: Conductive Core–Shell Photoanodes for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Core–shell structures consisting of thin shells of conformal TiO2 deposited on high surface area, conductive Sn-doped In2O3 nanoparticle. Mesoscopic films were synthesized by atomic layer deposition and studied for application in dye-sensitized solar cells. Results obtained with the N719 dye show that short-circuit current densities, open-circuit voltages, and back electron transfer lifetimes all increased with increasing TiO2 shell thickness up to 1.8–2.4 nm and then decline as the thickness was increased further. At higher shell thicknesses, back electron transfer to −RuIII is increasingly competitive with transport to the nanoITO core resulting in decreased device efficiencies.