Enhanced Photovoltaic Performance of Nanostructured Hybrid Solar Cell Using Highly Oriented TiO2 Nanotubes

Highly oriented TiO 2 nanotubes have been fabricated using ZnO nanorod template through liquid reactive deposition on the ITO substrates. The diameter and length of TiO 2 nanotubes can be effectively controlled for the suitable use for a hybrid solar cell by varying the diameter and length of the ZnO nanorod template. A mixture of P3HT/PCBM was infiltrated into the gaps between TiO 2 nanotubes to form hybrid solar cells. The open circuit voltage, short circuit current density, fill factor, and power conversion efficiency of the hybrid solar cell using highly oriented TiO 2 nanotubes were 646 mV, 9.95 mA cm −2, 51.6%, and 3.32%, respectively, much higher than 1.2% of hybrid solar cell based on ZnO nanorods tested under otherwise identical conditions and significantly higher than 0.7% of the same type hybrid solar cells reported in literature. The enhancement of the power conversion efficiency could be resulted from the highly oriented TiO 2 nanotubes with smaller diameter and large specific surface area for the efficient electron transfer in hybrid solar cells.