A Preponderant Enhancement of Conversion Efficiency by Surface Coating of $SnO_2$ Nanoparticles in Organic MK-2 Dye Sensitized Solar Cell

Nanocrystalline $SnO_2$ colloids are synthesized by hydrolysis of $SnCl_4{\cdot}5H_2O$ in aqueous ammonia solution. The synthesized $SnO_2$ nanoparticles with ca. 15 nm in diameter are coated on a fluorinedoped thin oxide (FTO) conductive substrate and heated at $550^{\circ}C$. The annealed $SnO_2$ film is treated with aqueous $TiCl_4$ solution, which is sensitzied with MK-2 dye (2-cyano-3-[5'''-(9-ethyl- 9H-carbazol-3-yl)-3',3'',3''',4-tetra-n-hexyl-[2,2',5',2'',5'',2''']-quater thiophen-5-yl]). Compared to bare $SnO_2$ film, the conversion efficiency is significantly improved from 0.22% to 3.13% after surface treatment of $SnO_2$ with $TiCl_4$, which is mainly due to the large increases in both photocurrent density from 1.33 to $9.46mA/cm^2$ and voltage from 315 to 634 mV. It is noted that little change in the amount of the adsorbed dye is detected from 1.21 for the bare $SnO_2$ to $1.28{\mu}mol/cm^2$ for the $TiCl_{4-}$ treated $SnO_2$. This indicates that the photocurrent density increased by more than 6 times is not closely related to the dye loading concentration. From the photocurrent and voltage transient spectroscopic studies, electron life time increases by about 13 order of magnitude, whereas electron diffusion coefficient decreases by about 3.6 times after $TiCl_4$ treatment. Slow electron diffusion rate offers sufficient time for regeneration kinetics. As a result, charge collection efficiency of about 40% before $TiCl_4$ treatment is improved to 95% after $TiCl_4$ treatment. The large increase in voltage is due to the significant increase in electron life time, associated with upward shift of fermi energy.