Achievement of 6.03% conversion efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells with single-crystalline rutile TiO2 nanorod photoanode

The rutile TiO2 nanorods (RTNs) with the length of 40–130 nm and diameters approximately 8–15 nm, containing some 300–500 nm sized RTN aggregates and 6% of anatase TiO2 nanocrystals, were prepared by surfactant-assisted hydrothermal method. The dye-sensitized solar cell (DSC) based on the RTNs exhibited power conversion efficiency of 6.03%. As compared to P25 TiO2 based DSC, RTNs based DSC shows improved light-harvesting and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller surface area, leading to an increase in short-circuit current (Jsc) by 40.6%.