Growth of the [110] Oriented TiO2 Nanorods on ITO Substrates by Sputtering Technique for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Abstract

TiO 2 films have been deposited on ITO substrates by DC reactive magnetron sputtering technique. It has been found that the sputtering pressure is a very important parameter for the structure of the deposited TiO 2 films. When the pressure is lower than 1 Pa, the deposited film has a dense structure and shows a preferred orientation along the [101] direction. However, the nanorod structure has been obtained as the sputtering pressure is higher than 1 Pa. These nanorod structure TiO 2 films show a preferred orientation along the [110] direction. The phases of the deposited TiO 2 films have been characterized by the x-ray diffraction and the Raman scattering measurements. All the films show an anatase phase and no other phase has been observed. The results of the scanning electron microscope show that these TiO 2 nanorods are perpendicular to the ITO substrate. The TEM measurement shows that the nanorods have a very rough surface. The dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have been assembled using these TiO 2 nanorod films prepared at different sputtering pressures as photoelectrode. And the effect of the sputtering pressure on the properties of the photoelectric conversion of the DSSCs has been studied.

Physical Investigations of Titanium Dioxide Nanorods Film Prepared by Hydrothermal Technique

“…In comparison to its particulate forms, the structure of the TiO2 nanorod has a larger surface area [8]. Chemical bath deposition (CBD), hydrothermal approach, solvothermal, chemical vapor deposition (CVD), and DC reactive magnetron sputtering are some of the synthetic procedures for generating TiO2 nanorod structures that have been documented [9,10]. The high reactivity of reactants, facile regulation of solution or interfacial reactions, creation of metastable and distinctive condensed phases, decreased air pollution, and low energy consumption all contributed to the growing interest in hydrothermally synthesized compounds.…”

ZnO Nanowires/N719 Dye With Different Aspect Ratio as a Possible Photoelectrode for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

“…Among all ZnO nanostructures, ZnO nanowires (ZnO NWs) are of the main interest due to their high aspect ratio (AR), the proportion of length/diameter and is related to the effective surface area. Also, ZnO NWs present effective confinement of photons and carriers (Song et al, 2010 ; Cui, 2012 ), and they provide a direct and fast pathway to the transportation of free charge carriers (Karst et al, 2011 ; Lee et al, 2011 ; Meng et al, 2014 ). These previous properties suggest ZnO NWs as a good candidate for UV laser, photocatalysis, solar cells, LEDs, and other photonic applications (Hong et al, 2008 ; Kang et al, 2008 ; Wijeratne and Bandara, 2014 ; Polyakov et al, 2016 ).…”

Paste Aging Spontaneously Tunes TiO2 Nanoparticles into Reproducible Electrosprayed Photoelectrodes

“…Therefore, the choice of a deposition technique for the TiO 2 nanostructure is critical to enable large production volumes, versatility, low energy consumption, and so on . Several deposition techniques were developed, including sol–gel, − chemical vapor deposition, , hydrothermal, solvothermal, microwave, electrochemical oxidation, electrospinning, spray pyrolysis, chemical bath, sputtering, atomic layer deposition, oblique electrostatic inkjet, and electrostatic inkjet (EI), to fabricate TiO 2 photoanodes. The commonly used sol–gel technique enables TiO 2 nanostructure production but is limited in large-scale production.…”

“…The commonly used sol–gel technique enables TiO 2 nanostructure production but is limited in large-scale production. Chemical vapor deposition (11) and sputtering require a vacuum environment and suffer a slow deposition rate. Scalable bottom-up atomic layer deposition requires relatively long processing times and is rather expensive too.…”