Highly bendable composite photoelectrode prepared from TiO ₂/polymer blend for low temperature fabricated dye-sensitized solar cells

We developed low temperature fabrication method for the bendable electrode, simply by blending of PMMA with TiO₂, providing flexibility to the plastic dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Contrary to the conventional structure of photoelectrode, proposed electrode consists of elastic polymer and inorganic materials. It is expected that elastic polymer could absorb the external impact like bending, retarding the crack propagation into the interconnected TiO₂. We confirmed that composite photoelectrode displayed good bending rigidity. Regarding photovoltaic properties, the open circuit voltage gradually increased with the polymer content, suggesting that formation of thin polymer layer on TiO₂ particles suppressed the recombination at TiO₂/electrolyte interface.