Abstract This paper studies the light scattering and adsorption of nanocrystalline TiO$_2$ porous films used in dye-sensitized solar cells composed of anatase and/or rutile particles by using an optical four-flux radiative transfer model. These light properties are difficult to measure directly on the functioning solar cells and they can not be calculated easily from the first-principle computational or quantitative theoretical evaluations. These simulation results indicate that the light scattering of 1--25 nm TiO$_{2}$ particles is negligible, but it is effective in the range of 80 and 180 nm. A suitable mixture of small particles (10 nm radius), which are resulted in a large effective surface, and of larger particles (150 nm radius), which are effective light scatterers, have the potential to enhance solar absorption significantly. The rutile crystals have a larger refractive index and thus the light harvest of the mixtures of such larger rutile and relatively small anatase particles is improved in comparison with that of pure anatase films. The light absorption of the 10 $\mu$m double-layered films is also examined. A maximal light absorption of double-layered film is gotten when the thickness of the first layer of 10\,nm-sized anatase particles is comparable to that of the second larger rutile layer.
Received: 30 November 2007
Revised: 07 March 2008
Accepted manuscript online:
Fund: Project supported by the Program of
Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (Grant No
03DZ12032) and the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in
University in China (Grant No NCET-04-0406).
Cite this article:
Xiong Bi-Tao(熊必涛), Zhou Bao-Xue(周保学), Bai Jing(白晶), Zheng Qing(郑青), Liu Yan-Biao(刘艳彪), Cai Wei-Min(蔡伟民), and Cai Jun(蔡俊) Light scattering of nanocrystalline TiO2 film used in dye-sensitized solar cells 2008 Chin. Phys. B 17 3713
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