Ferroelectric BiFeO3-coated TiO2 Electrodes for Enhanced Photovoltaic Properties of Dye-sensitized Solar Cells

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) based on titanium dioxide ($TiO_2$) have been extensively studied because of their promising low-cost alternatives to conventional semiconductor based solar cells. DSSCs consist of molecular dye at the interface between a liquid electrolyte and a mesoporous wide-bandgap semiconductor oxide. Most efforts for high conversion efficiencies have focused on dye and liquid electrolytes. However, interface engineering between dye and electrode is also important to reduce recombination and improve efficiency. In this work, for interface engineering, we deposited semiconducting ferroelectric $BiFeO_3$ with bandgap of 2.8 eV on $TiO_2$ nanoparticles and nanotubes. Photovoltaic properties of DSSCs were characterized as a function of thickness of $BiFeO_3$. We showed that ferroelectric $BiFeO_3$-coated $TiO_2$ electrodes enable to increase overall efficiency of DSSCs, which was associated with efficient electron transport due to internal electric field originating from electric polarization. It was suggested that engineering the dye-$TiO_2$ interface using ferroelectric materials as inorganic modifiers can be key parameter for enhanced photovoltaic performance of the cell.

강유전체 BiFeO3가 증착된 TiO2 전극을 이용한 염료감응형 태양전지의 효율 향상