Microwave-assisted rapid synthesis of highly porous TiO2 thin films with nanocrystalline framework for efficient photoelectrochemical conversion

Abstract

Herewith, we report the rapid scalable, economical and energy efficient synthesis strategy for TiO2 thin films in order to improve the photovoltaic performance. In the present investigation, porous TiO2 thin films with highly nanocrystalline frameworks have been synthesized via, microwave assisted dip coating (MWDC) technique. The influence of microwave irradiation time on the size, morphology, optical tuning and photoelectrochemical (PEC) properties of TiO2 thin films were studied systematically. In order to examine the phase structure, morphology and surface properties of synthesized porous TiO2 thin films, they were extensively characterized by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD), high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), selected area electron diffraction (SAED), FT-Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) techniques. We demonstrate that the photoanode made up of porous TiO2 thin film exhibits excellent PEC performance in NaOH under UV illumination. Wormhole like TiO2 thin film synthesized by MWDC technique has showed significant improvement in PEC conversation efficiency i.e. 0.77%. MWDC has ability to tailor the PEC conversion efficiency via microwave irradiation time. This trouble-free method was useful for the synthesis of porous TiO2 thin films with interconnected wormhole like structure which finds important applications in photoelectrochemical cell.