Published in

Elsevier, Materials Science and Engineering: B, 1(177), p. 19-26, 2012

DOI: 10.1016/j.mseb.2011.09.024

Links

Tools

Export citation

Search in Google Scholar

Hydrothermal Synthesis of 1D TiO2 Nanostructures for Dye Sensitized Solar Cells

Journal article published in 2012 by I. Tacchini, A. Ansón Casaos, Youhai Yu, M. T. Martinez, M. Lira Cantu ORCID
This paper is available in a repository.
This paper is available in a repository.

Full text: Download

Green circle
Preprint: archiving allowed
Orange circle
Postprint: archiving restricted
Red circle
Published version: archiving forbidden
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

Mono-dimensional titanium oxide nanostructures (multi-walled nanotubes and nanorods) were synthesized by the hydrothermal method and applied to the construction of dye sensitized solar cells (DSCs). First, nanotubes (TiNTs) and nanotubes loaded with titanium oxide nanoparticles (TiNT/NPs) were synthesized with specific surface areas of 253 m2/g and 304 m2/g, respectively. After that, thermal treatment of the nanotubes at 500 °C resulted in their transformation into the corresponding anatase nanorods (TiNT-Δ and TiNT/NPs-Δ samples). X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy data indicated that titanium oxide in the pristine TiNT and TiNT/NP samples was converted into anatase phase TiO2 during the heating. Additionally, specific surface areas and water adsorption capacities decreased after the heat treatment due to the sample agglomeration and the collapse of the inner nanotube channels. DSCs were fabricated with the nanotube TiNT and TiNT/NP samples and with the anatase nanorod TiNT-Δ and TiNT/NPs-Δ samples as well. The highest power conversion efficiency of η = 3.12% was obtained for the TiNT sample, despite its lower specific surface compared with the corresponding nanoparticle-loaded sample (TiNT/NP).