Effect of the TiO2 shell thickness on the dye-sensitized solar cells with ZnO–TiO2 core–shell nanorod electrodes

Irannejad, Ahmad; Janghorban, K.; Tan, Ooi Kiang; Huang, Hui; Lim, Chee Kian; Tan, Pei Yun; Fang, Xiaosheng; Chua, Chin-Seng; Maleksaeedi, Saeed; Hejazi, Seyyed Mohammad Hossein; Shahjamali, Mohammad Mehdi; Ghaffari, Mohammad Ali

doi:10.1016/j.electacta.2011.08.068

Cited by 59 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…These composites having two metal oxide nanostructures can be efficiently used as antifogging or self-cleaning surfaces, preventing dust deposition and allowing antireflective coatings. Thus they can successfully be employed in photovoltaic or photocatalytic applications, [27][28][29] in which optical losses caused by dust deposition and light reflection at the surface may be reduced having a superhydrophobic surface made by ZnO NWs. 30 Alternatively, a possible application in biomedical hard tissue implants can be also envisioned, where control on bone cell adhesion and proliferation can be optimized by varying the surface nanostructuration, even using hierarchical composite material surfaces.…”

Section: Anodic Oxidationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wetting Behavior of Hierarchical Oxide Nanostructures: TiO₂Nanotubes from Anodic Oxidation Decorated with ZnO Nanostructures

Ottone

Lamberti

Fontana

et al. 2014

J. Electrochem. Soc.

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Titania nanotubes (TiO 2 NTs) of 5 μm in length and 100 nm in the external diameter are easily formed by anodic oxidation. They are used as hollow substrates to deposit different ZnO nanostructures, such as nanoparticles and nanowires by employing two different techniques, electrodeposition and hydrothermal growth, respectively. In this way highly nanostructured and hierarchical sample surfaces were obtained, showing high level of crystallinity of both TiO 2 anatase and ZnO wurtzite materials. In addition, the wetting behavior drastically changed from the hydrophilic TiO 2 NTs surface to almost superhydrophobic surfaces of the hierarchical samples, thanks to the decoration with ZnO nanostructures. These results open interesting possibilities to employ our hierarchical TiO 2 -ZnO nanostructured materials as self-cleaning, antireflective or anti-fogging surfaces. These hierarchical and composite nanostructures could be thus efficiently used in photocatalytic devices, which would also benefit from the combination of both metal oxides for improved performances and efficiencies. Anodic oxidation1 is the process of forming an oxide on a metal surface by applying an electric potential through a suitable electrolyte. The metals that can be anodized belong to the so-called valve-metals group (Al, Ti, Zr, Nb, W, Ta, . . . ) and different kinds of ordered nanostructured oxides can be obtained. Compared with other synthesis approaches, electrochemical anodization is a simple and convenient technique to fabricate uniform layers of vertically self-oriented nanostructures. It has been widely accepted that the formation of the pores in anodic metal oxides is based on two continuous processes: the oxide dissolution at the electrolyte/oxide interface and the oxidation of metal at the oxide/metal interface.Particularly, anodic titanium oxide has attracted considerable interest since its unique properties make it useful for various functional applications, ranging from non-silicon solar cells 2-4 and photocatalysis 5 to energy storage. 6,7 In general, the morphology and the structure of the ordered layer are strongly affected by the electrochemical conditions (anodization voltage, distance between the electrodes, temperature) and the electrolyte composition. It is possible to grow titania nanotubes (NTs) with length varying between 100 nm up to 1 mm with a good control on the wall thickness and external roughness.In the present paper we report on the anodic oxidation of a titanium foil to form 5 μm long titania NTs. In order to create a hierarchical structure and then to study the wetting properties, we decorate both their inner and outer surface with zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles of about 20 nm in diameter. In particular, by using two different growth techniques, it is possible to additionally enrich the planar surface of the TiO 2 NTs with either a network of ZnO nanowires using the hydrothermal approach, or with ZnO microparticles of about 150 nm using the electrodeposition method.ZnO is a n-type metal oxide semiconductor havi...

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Section: Anodic Oxidationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wetting Behavior of Hierarchical Oxide Nanostructures: TiO₂Nanotubes from Anodic Oxidation Decorated with ZnO Nanostructures

Ottone

Lamberti

Fontana

et al. 2014

J. Electrochem. Soc.

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“…There are several studies to decrease this undesired reaction at the interface of semiconductor/electrolyte by using core-shell structure of various metal oxides [6,32,33] or by using different additives in the electrolyte to passive the electrolyte-exposed [34][35][36][37]. Moreover there are a number of earlier reports showing that addition of metal nanoparticles improves DSSC energy conversion efficiency [38][39][40][41].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Initial demonstrations of DSSCs were based on dye sensitization of porous nano crystalline semiconductors like TiO 2 . There are numerous studies on the potentials of improving the efficiency of DSSCs by using other semiconducting metal oxides, such as Nb 2 O 5 [3], CeO 2 [4], ZnO [5,6], and SnO 2 [7] and composite oxide materials [8,9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of Au nano-particles on TiO2 nanorod electrode in dye-sensitized solar cells

Ghaffari

Cosar

Yavuz

et al. 2012

Electrochimica Acta

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a b s t r a c tAu nano particles (NPs) were deposited on vertically grown TiO 2 nanorod arrays on FTO substrate by hydrothermal process. Metal nanoparticles were loaded onto the surface of TiO 2 nanorods via photochemical reduction process under ultraviolet irradiation. X-ray diffraction (XRD), electron microscopy (FESEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis were used to characterize the as-prepared Au/TiO 2 nanorod composites. Current density-voltage (J-V) measurements were obtained from a two-electrode sandwich type cell. The presence of Au nanoparticles can help the electron-hole separation by attracting photoelectrons. Addition of Au nanoparticles to the TiO 2 nanorod significantly increased the fill factor and J SC (short circuit current density). The application of Au NPs TiO 2 nanorods in improving the performance of DSSCs is promising.

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“…3). This absorption edges of TiO 2 mesoporous occurred at [22][23][24], whereas the absorption spectra of ZnO nanowires show a well-known exciton band and strong blueshift compared mesoporous TiO 2 from Fig. 3a, b.…”

Section: Optical Characterization Of Tio 2 /Zno Hybrid Structuresmentioning

confidence: 86%

“…Moreover, the formation of Ti 3? can increase oxygen vacancies, which support the transport of electrons and holes between dye molecules and the photoanode [24]. The Ti 2p peak of TiO 2 /ZnO tandem shifts to a lower banding energy.…”

Section: Morphology and Structural Properties Of Tandem Tio 2 Mesopormentioning

confidence: 99%

Self-assembled growth of tandem nanostructures based on TiO2 mesoporous/ZnO nanowire arrays and their optoelectronic and photoluminescence properties

Kılıç

Çelik

2015

Appl. Phys. A

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Growth of ZnO nanowires within TiO 2 mesoporous structures is carried out by hydrothermal method. Structural, optical and thermal characterizations have been carried out by SEM, XRD, EDAX, DTG, TG, PL and UVVis spectroscopy. XRD characterization shows that the all diffraction peaks of the tandem nanostructures films can be well indexed to a mixture of hexagonal wurtzite ZnO and anatase TiO 2 structures. The UV-Visible absorbance spectrum indicates that the tandem nanostructures based on TiO 2 mesoporous/ZnO nanowire arrays have 3.13 eV band gap energy while pure ZnO nanowire and bare TiO 2 mesoporous show 3.37 and 3.22 eV band gap energy, respectively. The PL spectra of tandem nanostructures show that the UV, violet and yellow emission peaks appeared at 3.1, 2.6 and 2.3 eV, respectively. It has been shown that from the PL spectra, the enhanced ultraviolet emission of TiO 2 /ZnO tandem structures is related to the fluorescence resonance energy transfer between TiO 2 mesoporous and ZnO nanowires. Thermogravimetric analysis from room temperature to 800°C has been performed to identify the thermal stability and the amount of tandem TiO 2 /ZnO structures.

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Effect of the TiO2 shell thickness on the dye-sensitized solar cells with ZnO–TiO2 core–shell nanorod electrodes

Cited by 59 publications

References 40 publications

Wetting Behavior of Hierarchical Oxide Nanostructures: TiO₂Nanotubes from Anodic Oxidation Decorated with ZnO Nanostructures

Wetting Behavior of Hierarchical Oxide Nanostructures: TiO₂Nanotubes from Anodic Oxidation Decorated with ZnO Nanostructures

Effect of Au nano-particles on TiO2 nanorod electrode in dye-sensitized solar cells

Self-assembled growth of tandem nanostructures based on TiO2 mesoporous/ZnO nanowire arrays and their optoelectronic and photoluminescence properties

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Effect of the TiO2 shell thickness on the dye-sensitized solar cells with ZnO–TiO2 core–shell nanorod electrodes

Cited by 59 publications

References 40 publications

Wetting Behavior of Hierarchical Oxide Nanostructures: TiO2Nanotubes from Anodic Oxidation Decorated with ZnO Nanostructures

Wetting Behavior of Hierarchical Oxide Nanostructures: TiO2Nanotubes from Anodic Oxidation Decorated with ZnO Nanostructures

Effect of Au nano-particles on TiO2 nanorod electrode in dye-sensitized solar cells

Self-assembled growth of tandem nanostructures based on TiO2 mesoporous/ZnO nanowire arrays and their optoelectronic and photoluminescence properties

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Wetting Behavior of Hierarchical Oxide Nanostructures: TiO₂Nanotubes from Anodic Oxidation Decorated with ZnO Nanostructures

Wetting Behavior of Hierarchical Oxide Nanostructures: TiO₂Nanotubes from Anodic Oxidation Decorated with ZnO Nanostructures