Tailoring the Structure-Property Relationships of Innovative Flowerlike TiO₂ Structures in a Fiber-Shaped Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell

In dye-sensitized solar cells, one-dimensional (1D) Titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanostructures like nanotubes, nanorods, and nanowires (NWs) are very commonly used as photoanode materials for dye molecule absorption due to their unique properties to enhance the cell performance. However, 1D TiO2 nanostructures have relatively low surface areas because of the free space between them. Herein, this paper reports an alkali hydrothermal method to prepare different TiO2 structures on Ti wire without using any surfactants. The morphology of the samples has been studied with the reaction time and analyzed by scanning electron microscopy. The study reveals that this common strategy could form not only 1D NWs but also different types of flowerlike TiO2 hierarchical structures. Different structures could be achieved by carefully adjusting the reaction parameters of the hydrothermal reaction. These structures were used as photoanodes to assemble fiber-shaped dye-sensitized solar cells, and the photoinduced photocurrent density-voltage curves were measured for these devices.