Abstract
Mesoporous nanofibers (NFs) with a high surface area of 112 m^2^/g have been prepared by electrospinning technique. The structures of mesoporous NFs and regular NFs are characterized and compared through scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Xโray diffraction (XRD) and selected area electron diffraction (SAED) studies. Using mesoporous TiO~2~ NFs as the photoelectrode, solidโstate dyeโsensitized solar cells (SDSCs) have been fabricated employing D131 as the sensitizer and P3HT as the hole transporting material to yield an energy conversion efficiency (ฮท) of 1.82%. A J~sc~ of 3.979 mA cm^โ2^ is obtained for mesoporous NFโbased devices, which is 3โfold higher than that (0.973 mA cm^โ2^) for regular NFโbased devices fabricated under the same condition (ฮท = 0.42%). Incident photonโtoโcurrent conversion efficiency (IPCE) and dyeโdesorption test demonstrate that the increase in J~sc~ is mainly due to greatly improved dye adsorption for mesoporous NFs as compared to that for regular NFs. In addition, intensity modulated photocurrent spectroscopy (IMPS) and intensity modulated photovoltage spectroscopy (IMVS) measurements indicate that the mesopores on NF surface have very minor effects on charge transport and collection. Initial aging test proves good stability of the fabricated devices, which indicates the promise of mesoporous NFs as photoelectrode for lowโcost SDSCs.