Significance of TiCl sub(4) post-treatment on the performance of hydrothermally synthesized titania nanotubes-based dye-sensitized solar cells

In this investigation, the effect of concentration of TiCl sub(4) for the post-treatment of hydrothermally synthesized titania nanotubes-based working electrode for dye-sensitized solar cells has been studied. Hydrothermally synthesized TiO sub(2) nanotubes were treated with different concentrations of TiCl sub(4) to investigate the effect of TiCl sub(4) concentration. The solar cell performance increased with the increase in TiCl sub(4) concentration up to 0.5 M and leveled off. The best solar cell showed a short-circuit current density (J sub(sc)), open-circuit voltage (V sub(oc)), fill factor (FF) and efficiency ( eta ) of 12.75 mA/cm super(2), 795 mV, 69.2 % and 7.04 %, respectively, while untreated TiO sub(2) nanotube showed J sub(sc), V sub(oc), FF and eta of 2.4 mA/cm super(2), 899 mV, 78.9 % and 1.7 %, respectively.