TiO2 multilayer thick films (up to 4 μm) with ordered mesoporosity: Influence of template on the film mesostructure and use as high efficiency photoelectrode in DSSCs

Mesoporous templated anatase thin films are very promising materials to act as photoelectrode in dye-sensitized solar cell. Templated-assisted dip-coating techniques are used to obtain thin films with ordered porosity. However, monolayer films are very thin and suffer from a low quantity of active material, leading to poor photovoltaic performances. In this paper, a dip-coating-based multilayer deposition technique is reported. First, we have studied the influence of the template on the film organization and porosity in terms of long-range order, percentage of porosity, pore size and pores connectivity. Different techniques such as transmission electron microscopy (TEM), atmospheric poroellipsometry (AEP) and UV-visible absorption spectroscopy (UV-vis.) have been used to describe the microstructural features of the films with a thickness of 1 µm. The film exhibiting the highest dye loading was selected and its thickness gradually increased up to 4 µm. Finally, the photovoltaic performances of the thick films (1 to 4 µm) have been evaluated in combination with the N-719 dye and show excellent efficiency (6.1%) when compared to values reported in the literature. Such mesostructured films are compared in terms of photovoltaic performance with TiO2 nanoparticles films, generally used in DSSC.