Efficient highly flexible dye sensitized solar cells of three dimensional graphene decorated titanium dioxide nanoparticles on plastic substrate

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) on flexible plastic substrates usually suffer from a slower electron diffusion rate and insufficient surface area due to no sintering process . Therefore, the conversion efficiency (ƞ) of such flexible DSSCs is normally below 6%. Here, the highly flexible DSSCs with enhanced performance are fabricated at room temperature, employing 3D graphene decorated nanocrystalline TiO 2 films (3DGT) as anode on plastic substrates. Owing to the enhanced charge transportation and increased surface area from 3D conductive graphene skeleton, the 13 μm-thick 3DGT-0.85 (0.85 wt% 3D graphene plus TiO 2 nanoparticles) anode achieves a power conversion efficiency of 6.41%, which is 56% higher than pristine TiO 2 based anode. This efficiency is among the highest values for the previously reported TiO 2 photoanodes on plastic substrates.