In this study, synthesis of nanosized TiO₂ in which hydrolysis and polycondensation of precursor, Ti(OC₄H₉)₄, has been performed in presence of different molecular weight polyethylene glycol (PEG) polymer as a capping agent is reported. Three different capped materials (TN-P400, TN-P4000, and TN-P8000) were synthesized along with un-capped TiO₂ (TiO₂ synthesized without using PEG, TN) for the sake of comparison. The structure and morphology of the synthesized TiO₂ were characterized by XRD, FTIR, SEM, and DLS analyses. The X-ray diffraction spectrums show the presence of anatase phase TiO₂. The as-synthesized PEG-capped TiO₂ were used as photoanode material for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) after coating with sensitizer dye N719, and photoelectric conversion efficiency (PCE) of 2.52%, under the illumination of 100 mW cm⁻², has been achieved with TN-P8000, which was much improved compared with DSSC performance with un-capped TiO₂ (PCE = 1.02%). EIS analyses revealed that TN-P8000 photoanode–based cell exhibited facile charge transfer, enhanced electron lifetime, and greater charge collection efficiency that contributed better photovoltaic performance. The results demonstrated that using PEG as a capping agent is a potential approach for improving the efficiency of DSSC and current conversion efficiency was increased as the molecular weight of PEG was increased.

在这项研究中，已报道了在不同分子量的聚乙二醇（PEG）聚合物作为封端剂的情况下，进行了纳米TiO _2的合成，其中前体Ti（OC ₄ H ₉）_4的水解和缩聚。为了比较，合成了三种不同的封端材料（TN-P400，TN-P4000和TN-P8000）以及未封端的TiO ₂（不使用PEG，TN合成的TiO ₂）。通过XRD，FTIR，SEM和DLS分析对合成的TiO ₂的结构和形貌进行了表征。X射线衍射光谱表明存在锐钛矿相TiO ₂。刚合成的PEG包覆的TiO用TN-P8000涂覆敏化染料N719后，将_2种用作染料敏化太阳能电池（DSSC）的光阳极材料，在100 mW cm ^-2的光照下，光电转换效率（PCE）为2.52％，与未封端的TiO ₂（PCE = 1.02％）的DSSC性能相比，该性能有了很大改善。EIS分析表明，基于TN-P8000光阳极的电池表现出便捷的电荷转移，更长的电子寿命和更高的电荷收集效率，从而带来了更好的光伏性能。结果表明，使用PEG作为封端剂是提高DSSC效率的潜在方法，并且随着PEG分子量的增加，电流转换效率也随之提高。