Mesoporous (N, S)-codoped TiO2 nanoparticles as effective photoanode for dye-sensitized solar cells

Highlights: ► Mesoporous (N, S)-TiO2 nanoparticles are synthesized by a solvothermal method. ► (N, S)-codoped TiO2 can improve Voc and Jsc of DSSC. ► DSSC with hierarchical photoanode shows a high conversion efficiency of 8%. - Abstract: (N, S)-codoped titania (TiO2) is synthesized by a simple template-free solvothermal method as photoanode for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The results confirm that N and S have been doped into the lattice of anatase, which can enhance the visible-light absorbance and promote the electron transportation in TiO2. The prepared (N, S)-codoped TiO2 exhibits pure anatase phase mesoporous nanoparticles with average diameter of 60 nm. Mixing (N, S)-codoped TiO2 with Degussa P25 as photoanode results in the improvement of open-circuit voltage and short-circuit photocurrent density of DSSC. And the corresponding DSSC obtains a high conversion efficiency of 8.0%.