Influence of accelerating gas flow rate on the particle cohesion in room temperature cold sprayed scattering layer for plastic-based dye-sensitized solar cells

Mesoporous TiO ₂ coating was prepared by room temperature cold spraying with submicro-sized anatase TiO ₂ powder for scattering layer in plastic-based DSCs. The effect of accelerating gas flow rate on the microstructure, cohesion and optical property of the as-prepared TiO ₂ scattering layers was investigated. Results showed that the cohesion of the TiO ₂ scattering layer increased with the increase of accelerating gas flow rate due to the improved particle-particle connection by the particle impact at an increased velocity. The light-reflecting ability of the TiO ₂ scattering layers increased with the increase of coating thickness from 2 to 10 μm and decreased with the increase of accelerating gas flow rate from 3.5 to 7.5 L/min. By adding the scattering layer to the photoanode of the plastic-based DSCs, the conversion efficiency of the plastic-based DSCs was increased by a factor of 21% to 4.70%.