Low temperature rapid synthesis of direct mesoporous anatase TiO2nano-aggregates and its application in dye-sensitized solar cell

Abstract

Anatase TiO2 nanoparticles with high surface area has a great importance in the field of energy materials. Here, we report low temperature and rapid synthesis of direct anatase phase mesoporous TiO2 by microwave (MW) assisted sol-gel process for the application in Dye Sensitized Solar Cell (DSSC). Highly stable and monodisperse TiO2nanoparticles are synthesized by varying parameters like reaction time, temperature, catalyst concentration, etc. The synthesized TiO2 nanoparticles were characterized by Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM),Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) analysis and Raman analysis. The average particle size of TiO2nano-aggregates (TiO2-NAgs) of ∼300-400 nm with the surface area ∼135 m2/g, and the average pore-size of 2-4 nm were observed. The XRD data found to be in good agreement with standard JCPDS, which clearly confirms anatase phase of TiO2. Photovoltaic property of the DSSC fabricated using TiO2 nano-aggregates were studied and compared with the standard P25 TiO2 nanoparticles. Power Conversion Efficiency (PCE) of 6.16% has achieved for the DSSCs fabricated with TiO2-NAgs as photoanode as compared to 4.36% observed for DSSCs fabricated using P25 TiO2nanoparticlesas photoanode.