Coaxial electrospun TiO2/ZnO core–sheath nanofibers film: Novel structure for photoanode of dye-sensitized solar cells

Novel TiO 2 /ZnO core–sheath nanofibers (NFs) film was fabricated through an extraordinary coaxial electrospinning technique . Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) were assembled using the TiO 2 /ZnO NFs film as photoanode . FESEM , TEM, FTIR , XRD , XPS and UV–vis were used to characterize the NFs electrode film. Photocurrent–voltage ( I – V ) characteristic, incident photo-to-current conversion efficiency (IPCE) spectrum, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurements were performed to evaluate the DSSCs performance. The results reveal that the DSSCs based on the TiO 2 /ZnO core–sheath NFs are superior to their bare TiO 2 NFs-based counterparts. Compared with the latter, the overall energy conversion efficiency was enhanced from 4.47 to 5.17%. And the possible mechanism for this enhancement was discussed.