Chemical fixing of xanthene dye (eosin Y) on the surface of TiO2 electrode was carried out by modifying the electrode with silane-coupling reagent to obtain stable dye-sensitized TiO2 electrode. Such silane modification can not only evidently enhance the stability of dye-sensitized TiO2 electrode but also im-prove the energy conversion efficiency of the assembled cells by increasing short-circuit photocurrent (JSC) and open-circuit photovoltage (VOC). It was found that the improvements of cell performances differ depending on the composition of the electrolyte. The optimum cell of the cell performance was achieved in the electrolyte with 0.5 mol/L TBAI/0.05 mol/L I2/EC:PC(3:1 w/w), yielding JSC of 4.69 mA·cm?2, VOC of 0.595 V, fill factor (FF) of 0.64 and η of 1.78%. Different spectroscopic techniques including UV-Vis spectra, fluorescence spectra, EIS and dark current measurements were employed to derive reasonable analysis and explanations.
