Facile fabrication of vertically aligned TiO2 nanorods with high density and rutile/anatase phases on transparent conducting glasses: high efficiency dye-sensitized solar cells
- 17 February 2012
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) in Journal of Materials Chemistry
- Vol. 22 (13), 6131-6138
- https://doi.org/10.1039/c2jm13770d
Abstract
We present a facile and effective method to prepare vertically aligned TiO2 nanorods (NRs) with a high density and rutile/anatase mixture phases on transparent conducting oxide (TCO) glasses. The anatase TiO2 nanoparticles grafted with hydrophilic poly(oxyethylene) methacrylate (POEM), which can coordinate with a TiO2 precursor such as Ti(BuO4), were introduced in the presence of glycine. Following application of a hydrothermal process and calcination at 450 °C, vertically well-aligned TiO2 NRs with diameters of 70 nm and lengths of 3 μm were generated, as confirmed by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The larger wavenumber shift observed with TiO2–POEM in FT-IR spectra suggests more favorable and stronger interactions that facilitate the nucleation and growth of NRs on the transparent conductive fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) substrates, resulting in increased NRs density. Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) fabricated using TiO2 NRs with a high density and rutile/anatase mixture phases exhibited improved energy conversion efficiency, irrespective of the type of electrolyte. When liquid electrolyte was used, the DSSCs exhibited an efficiency of 5.7% at 100 mW cm−2, which is the highest value for DSSCs fabricated with NRs directly grown on TCO substrates. High cell efficiencies of 4.5 and 3.7% were also obtained with quasi-solid-state and solid-state electrolytes, respectively, due to the reduced interfacial resistance of electrolyte/electrode and improved electron transport.Keywords
This publication has 30 references indexed in Scilit:
- Dye-sensitized solar cells based on double-layered TiO2 composite films and enhanced photovoltaic performanceElectrochimica Acta, 2011
- Microwave assisted CdSe quantum dot deposition on TiO2 films for dye-sensitized solar cellsNanoscale, 2011
- Zn-doped nanocrystalline TiO2 films for CdS quantum dot sensitized solar cellsNanoscale, 2010
- Photovoltaics Based on Hybridization of Effective Dye‐Sensitized Titanium Oxide and Hole‐Conductive Polymer P3HTAdvanced Functional Materials, 2009
- Growth of Oriented Single-Crystalline Rutile TiO2 Nanorods on Transparent Conducting Substrates for Dye-Sensitized Solar CellsJournal of the American Chemical Society, 2009
- Vertically Aligned Single Crystal TiO2 Nanowire Arrays Grown Directly on Transparent Conducting Oxide Coated Glass: Synthesis Details and ApplicationsNano Letters, 2008
- Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells Based on Oriented TiO2 Nanotube Arrays: Transport, Trapping, and Transfer of ElectronsJournal of the American Chemical Society, 2008
- Bioinspired Synthesis of Crystalline TiO2: Effect of Amino Acids on Nanoparticles Structure and ShapeCrystal Growth & Design, 2007
- Preparation and characterization of sprayed FTO thin filmsThe European Physical Journal Applied Physics, 2007
- Use of Highly-Ordered TiO2 Nanotube Arrays in Dye-Sensitized Solar CellsNano Letters, 2005