Influence of PVP template on the formation of porous TiO2 nanofibers by electrospinning technique for dye-sensitized solar cell

Abstract

The porous TiO2 nanofibers were prepared by electrospinning technique using polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) as template as well as pore-forming agent at the calcination temperature of 475 °C for 5 h. The influence of various concentrations of PVP (5, 8 and 10 wt%) on the surface area and porosity of the prepared TiO2 nanofibers (NFs) were studied by using BET-specific surface area analyzer. The TiO2 NFs obtained by using 5 wt% of PVP had higher surface area and porosity than those obtained by using 8 and 10 wt% of PVP. The prepared electrospun TiO2 NFs were characterized by using TG analysis, X-ray diffraction, FTIR, FE-SEM and TEM studies. Finally, dye-sensitized solar cells were assembled using the prepared TiO2 NFs as the photoanode, Pt as the cathode and 0.5 M 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium iodide, 0.5 M LiI, 0.05 M I2, 0.5 M 4-tertbutylpyridine in acetonitrile as an electrolyte. Among the three photoanodes, the cell assembled using porous TiO2 NFs obtained by using 5 wt% of PVP showed higher power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 4.81 % than those obtained by using 8 and 10 wt% of PVP, which showed the lower PCE of 4.13 and 3.42 %, respectively.