Triblock-Terpolymer-Directed Self-Assembly of Mesoporous TiO2: High-Performance Photoanodes for Solid-State Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

A new self-assembly platform for the fast and straightforward synthesis of bicontinuous, mesoporous TiO 2 fi lms is presented, based on the triblock terpolymer poly(isoprene - b - styrene - b - ethylene oxide). This new materials route allows the co-assembly of the metal oxide as a fully interconnec...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Docampo, P, Stefik, M, Guldin, S, Gunning, R, Yufa, N, Cai, N, Wang, P, Steiner, U, Wiesner, U, Snaith, H
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: 2012
Description
Summary:A new self-assembly platform for the fast and straightforward synthesis of bicontinuous, mesoporous TiO 2 fi lms is presented, based on the triblock terpolymer poly(isoprene - b - styrene - b - ethylene oxide). This new materials route allows the co-assembly of the metal oxide as a fully interconnected minority phase, which results in a highly porous photoanode with strong advantages over the state-of-the-art nanoparticle-based photoanodes employed in solidstate dye-sensitized solar cells. Devices fabricated through this triblock terpolymer route exhibit a high availability of sub-bandgap states distributed in a narrow and low enough energy band, which maximizes photoinduced charge generation from a state-of-the-art organic dye, C220. As a consequence, the co-assembled mesoporous metal oxide system outperformed the conventional nanoparticle-based electrodes fabricated and tested under the same conditions, exhibiting solar power-conversion effi ciencies of over 5%.© 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH and Co. KGaA, Weinheim.