Titanium dioxide (TiO2) paste was prepared by sol-gel and hydrothermal method with various precursors. Nanostructured mesoporous TiO2thin-film back electrode was fabricated from the nanoparticle colloidal paste, and its performance was compared with that made of commercial P25 TiO2. The best performance was demonstrated by the DSSC having a 16 μm-thick TTIP-TiO2back electrode, which gave a solar energy conversion efficiency of 6.03%. The ability of stong adhesion on ITO conducting glass substrate and the high surface area are considered important characteristics of TiO2thin film. The results show that a thin film with good adhesion can be made from the prepared colloidal paste as a result of alleviating the possibility of electron transfer loss. One can control the colloidal particle size from sol-gel method. Therefore, by optimizing the preparation conditions, TiO2paste with nanoparticle and narrow diameter distribution was obtained.
Abstract-In this study, we attempt to synthesize nanosized titanium dioxide with tubular structure for the photocatalytic applications, and self-prepared anatase TiO 2 powder is the precursor. We demonstrated that nanosized TiO 2 with tubular structure could be synthesized with a NaOH hydrothermal treatment on TiO 2 powder and then with a subsequent acid washing. Furthermore different formation mechanism of nanotubes could be got by controlling the pH value of acid washing step. In this research, we investigate the influence of different pH values of acid washing on the crystalline-structure, optical absorption range, porosity, specific surface area, and photo-catalytic activity of nanotubes. The influence of the preparation methods on crystalline-structure of photocatalysts and activities of photocatalytic reaction are obvious. The experimental results show that anatase TiO 2 nanotubes are produced as the pH value of acid washing is decreased to 1.3. Under this condition, the outer diameter and length of the nanotube is about 10 nm and 1μm respectively, its group is like petals. And it possesses the largest surface area of 381.2 m 2 /g, band gap of 3.12eV and the best photocatalytic activity.Index Terms-Anatase, hydrothermal method, photocatalytic activity, titanium dioxide nanotube.
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