The TiO2 films were sintered at 450°C for 30 min. The thickness of the TiO2 films was about 10 μm, and the active area of the TiO2 electrode was 0.25 cm2. The obtained TiO2 film was immersed in 0.5 mmol ethanol solution of N719 dye (Solaronix, Aubonne, Switzerland) for 24 h to adsorb the dye molecules. A Pt counter electrode was fabricated by squeeze printing of the Pt-Sol (Solaronix) on an FTO substrate. The sandwich-type solar cell was assembled by placing a Pt counter electrode on the dye-sensitized TiO2 electrode. The redox electrolyte (Dyesol) was injected between the electrodes.

Characterization An AM 1.5 solar simulator (white light from a 150-W Xenon lamp, McScience, Suwon-si, South Korea) was used as the light source. The incident light intensity was calibrated with a standard Si solar cell (Japan Quality Assurance HKI-272 Organization, Tokyo, Japan). Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) was conducted using Iviumstat (Ivium Technologies B.V., Eindhoven, the Netherlands) at an open-circuit potential Bromosporine datasheet at frequencies ranging from 10−1 to 105 Hz with an AC amplitude of 10 mV. The diffusion coefficients and electron lifetime of the electrons in the TiO2 films were determined

using ModuLight-module under a red LED (λ = 625 nm) as light source (Ivium Technologies). The values of the diffusion coefficient and electron lifetime were obtained under 0.55-, 0.7-, 0.85-, and 1-V light intensity. Results and discussion TEM images and XRD data of the TiO2 nanorods sintered at various temperatures are shown in Figure 1. The phase transition of the TiO2 was observed depending on the sintering temperatures. With increasing sintering temperature, the amorphous TiO2 underwent phase transition to anatase and rutile structures. The crystallinity increased and the crystal size in the nanorods grew with increasing temperature. Comparison with the XRD peaks of P25, which contains both anatase and rutile phases, confirmed that the sintered nanorods at 750°C, 850°C, and 1,000°C had rutile peaks. During the high-temperature

thermal CB-839 order treatment, the average IKBKE crystal size increased, reducing the grain boundaries and crystal defects. The decreased number of trap sites on the nanorods reduced the number of obstacles on the fast electron moving paths. These effects influenced the charge trap conditions and consequently increased the electron diffusion speed [20]. Among the nanorods sintered at various temperatures, those sintered at 850°C had the highest energy conversion efficiency in DSSCs. The photoelectrodes using a homemade paste with P25 TiO2 and 3 wt.% nanorod sintered at 450°C, 650°C, 750°C, 850°C, and 1,000°C exhibited efficiencies of 3.32%, 3.12%, 3.16%, 3.47%, and 3.41%, respectively. Figure 1 TEM images and XRD data of TiO 2 nanorods after sintering at various temperatures.