Inverse opal photoelectrode of Nb-doped TiO2 nanoparticles for dye-sensitized solar cell

Abstract

In this study, Nb-doped TiO 2 nanoparticles were prepared by solution synthesis, and utilized as photoelectrode for dye-sensitized solar cell aiming to obtain better photon-to-current conversion efficiency. Nb doping was carried out using two different Nb precursors, and subsequent hydrothermal treatment resulted in the size-controlled (*10 nm) Nb-doped TiO 2 nanoparticles with typical ellipsoidal shapes and anatase morphologies. It was observed that NbCl 2 precursor resulted in more uniform particle size, while Nb oxalate resulted in relatively broader particle size distributions and higher aspect ratio ellipsoid. Using these nanoparticles, 10 lm-thick porous inverse opal (IO) photoelectrodes were fabricated by coating the mixed aqueous dispersions of Nb-TiO 2 nanoparticles and polystyrene particles of 270 nm diameter on conductive glass followed by thermal sintering. DSSC single cell performance tests revealed that a photoelectrode from 2 mol% Nb-TiO 2 obtained from NbCl 2 exhibited 20 % enhancement for solar cell efficiency compared to bare TiO 2 IO.Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (

Steaming‐Assisted Conversion: A New Strategy for the Synthesis of Anatase TiO2, Nb, and W‐doped Anatase TiO2 2D Inverse Opal Films

“…We attribute the lattice expansion to the replacement of Ti 4+ ions (0.060 nm) by the bigger Nb 5+ (0.064 nm) /Nb 4+ (0.068 nm) and W 5+ (0.062 nm) ions. [ 31,32 ]…”

“…We attribute the lattice expansion to the replacement of Ti 4+ ions (0.060 nm) by the bigger Nb 5+ (0.064 nm) /Nb 4+ (0.068 nm) and W 5+ (0.062 nm) ions. [31,32] Combining the results from HRTEM, EDS, XPS, and Raman, it could be reasonably deduced that Nb has been successfully and homogeneously doped into the TiO 2 lattice. Therefore, the steaming strategy shows its great advantage in high-content doping of Nb, reaching 34%, which is much higher than most literature results.…”