TiO2 microstructures synthesized via solgel process for dye-sensitized solar cell applications

Abstract

The titania (TiO2) was synthesized by means of sol-gel process and the synthesized TiO2 is coated on quartz substrates by using spin coating technique, the aqueous solution of titanium tetra isopropoxide is used as a precursor. X-ray diffraction and FESEM techniques have been utilized to study the chemical and physical changes in the procedure of sol-gel method. Powder-XRD was used for identification of crystal structures lattice parameter and crystal orientation. The diffraction peaks (101) (004) (200) (105) (211) and corresponding full width at half maximum (FWHM) areidentified to calculate the average crystallite size by making use the Debye-Scherrer’s equation and it is found that 33-40 nm,and confirms TiO2 is in anatase phase by standard JCPDS. The product of Tio2 anatase phase are sharper peaks and peak intensities increased by changing the rotation period. UV–Visible spectrophotometer measurements, the highly transmit area of UV spectrum can be clearly states prepared TiO2 thin films are semiconducting nature. The optical band gap energy for various rotational speed of TiO2 thin films are found 3.17-3.13 eV. These variations in the value of energy band gap strongly recommended for the fabrication in solar cells materials.