Abstract
A series of 14 mesoporous titania materials has been synthesized using the simple alcothermal template-free method and various alcohols, such as methanol, propanols and butanols, as solvents. All materials were characterized by both wide and small angle XRD, which exhibited the anatase phase with short-range ordered mesoporous structure that is still forming during post synthetic temperature treatment in most of the investigated materials. Nitrogen adsorption–desorption isotherms confirmed the mesoporous structure with surface area ranging from 241 to 383 m2g- 1 and pore volumes from 0.162 to 0.473 m3g-1, UV-Vis diffuse reflectance showed the redshift of the absorption edge and the bandgap decrease after post synthetic calcination of the materials presented. The TEM, FT-IR, DTA and TG measurements have been made to well characterize the materials synthesized. The mesoporous samples obtained were applied as anode materials for dye-sensitized solar cells and showed good activity in photon-to-current conversion process with efficiency values ranging from 0.54% to 4.6% and fill factors in the 52% to 67% range. The photovoltaic performances were not as high as those obtained for the materials synthesized by us earlier employing ethanol as a solvent. The differences in the electron lifetime, calculated from electrochemical impedance spectroscopy results and varying between 4.3 to 17.5 ms, were found as a main factor determining the efficiency of the investigated photovoltaic cells.
Highlights
Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) are well performing cheap devices that produce green energy by direct conversion of solar light into electricity [1]
Mesoporous titania with crystalline framework obtained via controlled hydrolysis at room temperature of titanium(IV) n-butoxide in the presence of a small amount of nitric acid catalyst was reported by Liu et al [7]
In this work we present the development of the alcothermal template-free synthesis of mesoporous titania powders published by us elsewhere [26]
Summary
Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) are well performing cheap devices that produce green energy by direct conversion of solar light into electricity [1]. Qi et al obtained wellcrystallized anatase with disordered mesoporous structure using only the titanium precursor in ethanolic solution and distilled water [6]. Mesoporous titania with crystalline framework obtained via controlled hydrolysis at room temperature of titanium(IV) n-butoxide in the presence of a small amount of nitric acid catalyst was reported by Liu et al [7]. The simultaneous formation of macro- and mesopores in sponge-like structures was further reported [8,9,10] Such structures were obtained via dropwise addition of titanium precursors to deionized water or water solutions of a weak inorganic acids, followed by calcination of the obtained precipitate after various ageing times. In this work we present the development of the alcothermal template-free synthesis of mesoporous titania powders published by us elsewhere [26].
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