This study investigates the potential of utilizing multifunctional nanostructured materials for the efficient light trapping and electron transport in solar cells by combining titanium dioxide (TiO2) rods and nanoparticles. A simple solvothermal method was adopted for the synthesis of coupled morphology adopting the desired precursor with the constant concentration and temperature. The reaction duration (12, 24, 36 and 48 hrs) was varied and the materials resultant physical, optical and structural characteristics were elucidated to determine the nature of the prepared material. The crystallographic phase of the synthesised samples was determined with XRD and Raman analysis. From the experimental data it is hypothesized that the surface plane of anatase (105) is involved in the deformation of the structure and the formation of the rutile phase. To further investigate on the formation of mixed phase in the prepared sample a computation study was performed using density functional theory coupled to the Hubbard U correction (DFT+U) as a function of volume in both the anatase and rutile phases. The relative stability of the O-Ti-O networks is explored starting from ultrathin materials for four different sizes, of anatase and rutile nanorods separately. Finally, the synthesized TiO2 materials were used to prepare screen printed dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) devices and their respective properties were quantified.
Keywords[edit | edit source]
Nanoparticles; Dual morphology; Rods embedded in particles;dye sensitized solar cell
See also[edit | edit source]
- Effect of microwave power irradiation on TiO2 nano-structures and binder free paste screen printed dye sensitized solar cells
- Peanut shaped ZnO microstructures: controlled synthesis and nucleation growth toward low-cost dye sensitized solar cells
- Dual morphology titanium dioxide for dye sensitized solar cells
- Enhanced Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell Performance using Strontium Titanate Perovskite Integrated Photoanodes Modified with Plasmonic Silver Nanoparticles
- Microwave-Assisted Synthesized Gadolinium Doped Barium Strontium Titanate Nanostructures: Structural and Optical Properties for DSSC Applications
- Impact of Coupled Plasmonic Effect with Multishaped Silver Nanoparticles on Efficiency of Dye Sensitized Solar Cells
- The use of urea as an N-doping 3D hierarchical preserving agent for titanium dioxide nanostructures tailored for dye-sensitized solar cells
- Visible light driven photocatalytic performance of 3D TiO2/g-C3N5 nanocomposites via Z-scheme charge transfer promotion for water purification
- Fabrication of Bimetallic Inlaid Working Electrode for Highly Efficient Dye Sensitized Solar Cells