A novel microwave-assisted strategy to fabricate multifunctional photoactive titania-based heterostructures with enhanced activity

Abstract

TiO2-ZnO heterostructures with multifunctional photoactive properties were prepared using the two-stage microwave method. The presence of a binary crystalline system (anatase – wurtzite) was confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM). The multifunctional character of the obtained photoactive materials was evaluated in two different processes – photocatalysis and photovoltaics. Photo-oxidation tests proved that the TiO2-ZnO heterostructures demonstrate high photocatalytic activity in phenol degradation. Furthermore, the prepared titania-based heterojunction systems were employed as precursors of the semiconducting layers in the DSSCs working electrodes. The photovoltaic parameters of the cells, assembled with electrodes post-treated with TiCl4 solution, have been tremendously improved by as much as forty-fold. Additionally, the scientific novelty of the work should be emphasized, resulting from the utilization of microwave-assisted synthetic strategy for the first time to prepare highly efficient photoactive materials with significant application potential in both photocatalysis and photovoltaics (DSSC cells).