Highly transparent titania in mixed organic solvent with controlled surface area and porosity

Abstract

Titania nanoparticles with intriguing properties like improved surface area, porosity and excellent transparency have been obtained through solvothermal treatment under a mixed organic solvent medium. The study involves acetic acid and ethanol mixture as the solvent. Contrary to the earlier reports, the resulting nanoparticles are phase pure anatase TiO2 and maintain the phase even with alterations made in solvent mixture volume ratio. Varying ratios are chosen for studying the influence of acetic acid on the resultant nanoparticles. Surface area and transparency are found to be significantly influenced by the reaction mechanism. Effect of variation of solvent mixture to precursor volume ratio and solvent mixture volume ratio on the size, shape, porosity, surface area, morphology and phase of resultant TiO2 particles is analyzed in detail. Improved surface area, porosity and transparent nature shown by the synthesized samples compared to commercial anatase titania give an impetus to the photoactive response of TiO2 nanoparticles. Owing to the superior properties possessed by the synthesized TiO2, its photovoltaic behavior as photoanode material is analyzed in DSSC. Distinctly, synthesized titania nanoparticles show enhanced performance (46% increment) than commercial TiO2 where the high transparency, greater surface area and mesoporosity of the synthesized TiO2 nanoparticles collectively account for the improved device performance.