A dye-sensitised Schottky junction device fabricated from nanomaterials on a stainless steel substrate

Dye-sensitised Schottky junction cells were fabricated on stainless steel using TiO2 and silver nanowires. A titania sol was synthesised by a sol-gel process and was deposited on the substrate by dip coating, followed by sintering at 350 °C for grade 304 stainless steel. Silver nanowires were drop cast from suspension and annealed. The current–voltage characteristics were measured and fit to the diode equation. The average I0 value for a typical batch of anatase devices was 4.9 × 10−6 A cm−2. The devices showed a UV response after treatment with tartaric acid and showed EQEs of 7.0% in the UV at single wavelengths. It was possible to measure a small visible photocurrent for these devices following functionalisation with a ruthenium dye.