LAUSR

Abstract The anatase branched open-ended titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) nanotubes (NTs) are prepared using a combined method of electrospinning, hydrothermal processing and calcination. The branched open-ended TiO 2 NT (BOTNT) is composed a trunk of a large sized NT, from which out growth many branches consisting of single-crystalline TiO 2 nanosheets (NSs) and small NTs. The morphology and microstructure of the BOTNTs can be controlled by varying with the hydrothermal treatment time. When it is used in flexible dye-sensitized solar cells (FDSSCs) as multifunctional layer covering on the carbon nanotubes (CNTs) incorporated TiO 2 (CNTs/TiO 2 ) nanorods (NRs) layer, a high conversion efficiency of 4.70% is obtained. This efficiency is much higher than that of the cell assembled by the single-layer CNTs/TiO 2 NRs film. This is attributed to the great increase in light harvesting efficiency, resulting from excellent light-scattering ability and high specific surface area for dye loading of the BOTNTs. Furthermore, the excellent electron transport ability of the BOTNTs due to their high level of interconnectivity, improves the performance of FDSSCs.