Urchin-like TiO₂ hierarchical microspheres (UTHMs) with an extremely large surface area of 331 m² g⁻¹ were synthesized via a facile one-pot hydrothermal method and studied for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) application. In-situ growth of Au nanoparticles (NPs) on the surface of the UTHMs were further conducted to achieve Au-decorated UTHMs (Au-UTHMs). A series of novel composite photoanode films were designed through the combined use of Au-UTHMs and UTHMs at different mass ratios. The DSSC constructed with the composite photoanode prepared under an optimal Au-UTHMs to UTHMs ratio of 2 wt% yields a considerable power conversion efficiency of 7.21%, which was markedly higher than that of the pure P25 NPs based device (5.19%) and pure UTHMs based device (6.10%). The significantly enhanced performance of the composite photoanode based DSSC can be attributed to the synergistic effect of two benefits: (1) the large specific surface area, strong light scattering and fast electron transfer channels arising from the novel hierarchical features of UTHMs, and (2) the enhanced light absorption owing to the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) effect of Au NPs.

具有331 m ²  g ^-1极大表面积的类似Urchin的TiO ₂分层微球（UTHMs）通过简便的一锅水热法合成了这些化合物，并研究了其在染料敏化太阳能电池（DSSC）中的应用。进一步在UTHMs的表面上原位生长Au纳米颗粒（NPs），以获得装饰Au的UTHMs（Au-UTHMs）。通过组合使用不同质量比的Au-UTHM和UTHM，设计了一系列新颖的复合光电阳极薄膜。用在2 wt％的最佳Au-UTHMs与UTHMs之比下制备的复合光电阳极构造的DSSC产生了7.21％的可观功率转换效率，这明显高于纯P25 NPs器件（5.19％）和纯P25 NPs器件的功率转换效率。基于UTHMs的设备（6.10％）。基于复合光阳极的DSSC的显着增强性能可归因于两个好处的协同作用：（1）大比表面积，