In this work, F-T
film was used instead of TiO2 as the photoanode. Redox-inactive Al2O3 was examined as a blocking
layer on F-T for elimination of electron shunting. Surface sol-gel process conducted under mild experimental conditions was further used to deposit a conformal ultrathin layer of Al2O3 on
F-T photoanodes, with the aim to modulate interfacial electron transfer dynamics and thereby improve the performance of DSCs combined with enhanced electron extraction of F-T
film, A power conversion efficiency of 5.24% is obtained, improving by 12.4% of the solar cell based on bare F-T electrodes. The demonstrated results indicate that the surface property of the electrode is crucial to solar cell performance and this study on F-T DSCs offers a
strategy toward optimizing the energy conversion efficiency of solar cells based on integrated effects of F-T film’s enhanced electron extraction and Al2O3 film’s suppression of electrons
recombination.