A novel titanium dioxide paste based on Pechini sol-gel method and nanocrystalline TiO2 powder has been successfully developed and tested. The paste enables the formation of sponge like structure of the TiO2 layer i.e. highly porous and at the same time well connected TiO2 network. The layers have been used to assemble dye sensitized solar cells (DSSC) with two ruthenium complex based dyes, N71...

Conducting mesoporous TiO2 is rapidly gaining importance for green energy applications. To optimise performance, its porosity and crystallinity must be carefully fine-tuned. To this end, we have performed a detailed study on the temperature dependence of TiO2 crystallisation in mesoporous films. Crystal nucleation and growth of initially amorphous TiO2 derived by hydrolytic sol-gel chemistry is...

TiO2/ZnO films grown by atomic layer deposition (ALD) demonstrated nanotribological behaviors using scratch testing. TEM profiles obtained an amorphous structure TiO2 and nanocrystalline structure ZnO, whereas the sample has significant interface between the TiO2/ZnO films. The experimental results show the relative XRD peak intensities are mainly contributed by a wurtzite oxide ZnO structure a...

The feasibility of synthesizing metal–oxide–metal (MOM) heterojunction nanowires in the Au–TiO2–Au system is demonstrated. The synthesis method presented here entails sequential electroplating of Au and electro-deposition of amorphous titanium oxide (TiOx ) inside nanoholes of anodic aluminium oxide (AAO) templates. This is followed by dissolving the template, and heat-treating the released nan...

The effects of conducting glasses on photovoltatic properties of dye-sensitized solar cells using nanocrystalline TiO2 were studied. The ITO substrate showed low ability to withstand heat during the sintering process, leading to an increase in sheet resistance. The heat stability of ITO conducting glass was improved by depositing metal oxide such as ATO, AZO, and SnO2, on ITO layer. The IPCE sp...

Recently, the conjugated polymer – inorganic nanocomposites have been increasingly studied due to the potential applications of these advanced materials in developing optoelectronic devices. In this work nanocomposite materials thin films based on poly [2-methoxy-5-(2’-ethyl-hexyloxy)-1,4-phenylene vinylene] (MEH-PPV) and nanocrystalline TiO2 (nc-TiO2) have been fabricated. The photoluminescenc...

Water-splitting dye-sensitized photoelectrochemical cells (WSDSPECs) utilize high surface area TiO2 electrodes functionalized with light absorbing sensitizers and water oxidation catalysts. Because water splitting requires vectorial electron transfer from the catalyst to the sensitizer to the TiO2 surface, attaching both sensitizer and catalyst to TiO2 in the correct sequence and stabilizing th...

In blended hybrid systems distinct microor nanostructured materials can be formed by phase separation. Network structures of particles or rods in a polymer matrix can be developed via self-assembly. We use this blending approach to compare active materials for application in solar cell devices. Blends were fabricated from either poly(hexylthiophene) P3HT or poly(triphenylamine) PTPA mixed with ...

The correlation between the textural properties and the photocatalytic activity of nanocrystalline Titanium dioxide (TiO2)-anatase films obtained by sol–gel has been investigated. Mesoporous and mesostructured TiO2-anatase films were prepared using different titanium precursors and Pluronic (F127) and polyethylene glycol hexadecyl ether P5884 (Brij58) surfactants via acid catalysis. Ca(NO3)2 an...