Morphological, optical, structural and photoelectrochemical properties of TiO2 nanoflower prepared via PVP surfactant assisted liquid phase deposition technique

Abstract

This paper reports the synthesis of TiO2 nanoflowers as photovoltaic materials of the photoelectrochemical cell (PEC) via the phase liquid deposition technique assisted with a polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) surfactant. This work investigates the influence of the surfactant concentration on the morphological, optical, phase structure and PEC properties of the TiO2 PEC cell. The grain size of the TiO2 sample decreases with increase in PVP concentration. The smallest grain size of 16 ± 2 nm is obtained at 8 mM PVP. The thickness of the sample increases with PVP concentration. The concentration of PVP does not influence the optical absorption and band gap of the sample. The phase structure and crystallinity degree of the sample are not influenced by PVP concentration. The crystallite size is around 20 nm. The short-circuit current density, Jsc, of the PEC cell utilising these TiO2 samples increases with decrease in grain size which is due to the increase in PVP concentration. The best Jsc was 0.068 mA cm−2 obtained at 8 mM PVP.