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Tunable synthesis of hierarchical TiO 2 spheres consisting of rutile nanowires for dye‐sensitized solar cells and photocatalysis
Author(s) -
Wang Hequan,
Yu Xiao,
Li Haibo,
Du Yu,
Xin Ling
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
crystal research and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.377
H-Index - 64
eISSN - 1521-4079
pISSN - 0232-1300
DOI - 10.1002/crat.201100542
Subject(s) - materials science , photocatalysis , rutile , methyl orange , dye sensitized solar cell , chemical engineering , nanowire , dispersity , nanoparticle , specific surface area , nanotechnology , bet theory , adsorption , catalysis , polymer chemistry , chemistry , organic chemistry , electrode , engineering , electrolyte
Hierarchical TiO 2 spheres consisting of rutile nanowires (HTS) are successfully prepared in the bulk solution via a non‐polar solvent/polar solution interfacial syntheses strategy. The effect of reaction temperature on the morphology, size, BET surface area and monodispersion of HTS is studied systematically. Increasing reaction temperature decreases the diameter of spheres in micro‐scale whereas increases the diameter of nanowires in nano‐scale for these HTS. Monodisperse HTS are formed at 230 °C for 20 h, which can suitably be served as light scattering structure for dye‐sensitized solar cell with the additional advantage of rapid electron transport rate. A high efficiency of 8.54% was achieved for the composite DSSC consisting of nanoparticles and monodispersed HTS (synthesized at 230 °C), showing 31.38% improvement compared with that (6.5%) of the DSSCs made from pure P25 nanoparticles at the similar thickness. Furthermore, the photocatalytic performances of HTS for the degradation of methyl orange were also investigated. Contrary to the effect on the performance of DSSC, the HTS synthesized at 150 °C show higher photocatalytic degradation efficiency due to larger BET surface area.