Facile Preparation of TiO 2 Nanobranch/Nanoparticle Hybrid Architecture with Enhanced Light Harvesting Properties for Dye‐Sensitized Solar Cells

We report TiO 2 nanobranches/nanoparticles (NBN) hybrid architectures that can be synthesized by a facile solution phase method. The hybrid architecture simultaneously improves light harvesting and charge collection performances for a dye‐sensitized solar cell. First, TiO 2 nanorods with a trunk length of 2 μ m were grown on a fluorine‐doped tin oxide (FTO)/glass substrate, and then nanobranches and nanoparticles were deposited on the nanorods’ trunks through a solution method using an aqueous TiCl 3 solution at 80°C. The relative amount of nanobranches and nanoparticles can be controlled by multiplying the number of TiCl 3 treatments to maximize the amount of surface area. We found that the resultant TiO 2 NBN hybrid architecture greatly improves the amount of dye adsorption (five times compared to bare nanorods) due to the enhanced surface area, while maintaining a fast charge collecti…