Low-temperature preparation of hierarchical structure TiO ₂ for flexible dye-sensitized solar cell

Photoanodes for flexible DSSC have been prepared through a chemical sintering method using hydrothermal cement at low temperature of 120°C. The addition of the hydrothermal cement can effectively increase the adhesion between the photoanode and flexible ITO-PET substrate and build the interconnection between nanoparticles at low temperature for the fast transport of electrons. The flexible DSSC based on the photoanode obtains a relatively high photo-to-electric conversion efficiency of 4.0%. The method basing on the commercially available TiO ₂ with a small proportion of hydrothermal cement is suitable for roll-to-roll screen-printing preparation, which is expected to be scaled up for mass production of high performance flexible DSSCs.