The effect of Ti-isopropoxide (TTIP) treatment on the TiO2 mesoporous layer for DSSC application

Dye Sensitized, Solar Cell (DSSC) is the most attractive technology in third-generation solar cells due to its simple operation, easy fabrication, great use of raw materials, and ability to be flexible panels. One of the materials that are often used in DSSC is titanium dioxide. Titanium dioxide is a semiconductor material formed from Ti4+ ions and O2- ions. Titania has a stable chemical structure under ultraviolet light. The anatase phase of titania has high photocatalytic activity compared to other phases, so it is widely used for DSSC applications. One of the important components in DSSC is the stability and morphology of the photoanode, so that in this study additional treatment will be carried out on the TiO2 photoanode. The addition of this treatment aims to improve the interconnection of TiO2. One of the materials used as a treatment is TTIP. This treatment is carried out by dip coating. From the experiments, the data shows that the efficiency increased up to 30% after treatment, from 3.78% to 5.45%. This study can explain through the morphology of the SEM characterization results where it is seen that there is a TiO2 layer with a decrease in porosity from 64% to 60% after treatment. In addition, this treatment also shows an increase in the effectiveness of TiO2 charge transfer as indicated by the results of impedance analysis where the RCT of the sample without treatment is 15 ohms and the sample with treatment is 8 ohms.