Flexible DSSCs have been widely researched since their unique properties such as portability, light weight and flexibility. Contrary to traditional solar cells which require high temperature sintering to enhance the charge collection efficiency of the photoanode, flexible DSSCs can only be sintered in a relatively low temperature due to the restriction of limber materials. To overcome the high temperature limit of the flexible substrates, we successfully transferred the free-standing TiO2 nanotube membranes onto ITO/PET substrates using binder-free TiO2 pastes. Followed by laser sintering, the electrical contacts between the TiO2 nanotube membrane, nanoparticles and substrate can be efficiently promoted, which prevents from damaging to the plastic conductive substrate. The efficiency of 4.65% is achieved without traditional high temperature sintering and mechanical compression, which shows great potential application in TiO2nanotube based flexible dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs).

Shu Zhu, Xiaolin Liu, Jia Lin, and Xianfeng Chen, Low temperature transferring of anodized TiO2 nanotube-array onto a flexible substrate for dye-sensitized solar cells, Opt. Mater. Express 5(12), 2754-2760 (2015).