One-step microwave calcination of ZrO2-coated TiO2 electrodes for use in dye-sensitized solar cells

TiO2 and ZrO2-coated TiO2 working electrodes were produced and calcined at 450 deg C in a 2.45GHz microwave furnace prior to incorporation in dye-sensitized solar cells. The bare TiO2 working electrodes increased from 0.2% up to 2.4% efficient after microwave calcination at a light intensity of 1 Sun. The efficiency was further increased to 3.1% for the ZrO2-coated TiO2 core-shell electrodes. The increased photovoltaic performance was due to improvements in the open circuit voltage (Voc) from 692 to 719mV and the short circuit current density (Jsc) from 6.24 to 6.56mAcm-2.