Anatase TiO2 nanocrystals via dihydroxy bis (ammonium lactato) titanium (IV) acidic hydrolysis and its performance in dye-sensitized solar cells

Abstract

The conventional way to synthesize anatase TiO2 with dihydroxy bis (ammonium lactato) titanium (IV) (TALH) is adjusting pH value of precursor solution to basic condition. In this paper, we prepared white color anatase TiO2 under acid condition via a hydrothermal route. TEM image shows the TiO2 has a sharp contour and crystallite size is about 5–10 nm. The TiO2 also has specific surface area of 97 m2/g and its average pore diameter is about 8.5 nm after sintering at 500 °C for 30 min. These characters make it to be a proper candidate for DSSCs’ photoanode. By comparing the DSSCs’ performance between the TiO2 we have synthesized (A35) and P25, A35 has energy conversion efficiency of 6.92% without any scattering layers, which was 17.9% higher than P25 photoanode. The higher specific area and good pore diameter distribution of A35 make photoanode absorb more dye molecules. The IPCE curve and dye absorbing experiment further confirmed the above mentioned results. DSSCs’ analysis revealed the white color anatase TiO2 could be achieved under acid condition when using TALH precursor.