Effect of tertiary amines on the synthesis and photovoltaic properties of TiO2 nanoparticles in dye sensitized solar cells

Highlights: • TiO2 nanoparticles were synthesized via a two-step sol–gel method. • Two tertiary amines were selected as complexing agents. • Size control was achieved by selection of long chained amine. • The total conversion efficiency of 5.04% was reported as the best result. -- Abstract: Two different amines as complexing agents were used in a two-step sol–gel method to prepare TiO2 nanoparticles. The effect of amines on the size of the TiO2 nanocrystals and its influence on the performance of corresponding dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) were investigated. It is shown that using a tertiary long chained monoamine as a complexing agent is beneficial in two ways; one is producing the particles with smaller size and the other is slightly sticking the particles in order to have a film with higher reflectivity which both is beneficial to photovoltaic performance. The obtained products were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectra, and ultraviolet-visible (UV–vis) spectroscopy. The overall conversion efficiency of the long-chain-based DSSC (5.04%) appeared to be 45% higher than that obtained for the tertiary short-chain diamine