Paste Aging Spontaneously Tunes TiO2 Nanoparticles into Reproducible Electrosprayed Photoelectrodes

Shahiduzzaman M 1 , Chen B 2 , Akhtaruzzaman M 3 , Wang L 4 , Fukuhara H 2 , Tomita K 5 Show all authors , Iwamori S 6 , Nunzi JM 1 , Taima T 1 , Umezu S 2

Affiliations 

  • 1 Nanomaterials Research Institute (NanoMaRi), Kanazawa University, Kakuma, Kanazawa 920-1192, Japan
  • 2 Department of Modern Mechanical Engineering, Waseda University, 3-4-1 Ookubo, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 269-8555, Japan
  • 3 Solar Energy Research Institute, The National University of Malaysia, Bangi, Selangor 43600, Malaysia
  • 4 Graduate School of Frontier Science Initiative, Kanazawa University, Kakuma, Kanazawa 920-1192, Japan
  • 5 Department of Chemistry, School of Science, Tokai University, Kitakaname, Hiratsuka 259-1292, Japan
  • 6 Research Institute of Science and Technology (RIST), Tokai University, Kitakaname, Hiratsuka 259-1292, Japan
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces, 2021 Nov 17;13(45):53758-53766.
PMID: 34735118 DOI: 10.1021/acsami.1c13793

Abstract

In this study, the spontaneous microstructure tuning of TiO2 was observed by aging the ethanol/water TiO2 paste for up to 20 days at ambient conditions. A dynamic light scattering study reveals that it formed the outstanding reproducible TiO2 microstructure with a ∼200 nm average particle size and stabilizes in 6 to 20 days under an ambient atmosphere. Interestingly, the as-deposited day 15 sample spontaneously changed its crystallinity upon keeping the paste at ambient conditions; meanwhile the day 0 sample showed an amorphous structure. A dense, uniform, and stable TiO2 electrode was cast on a fluorine doped-tin oxide substrate using the electrospray technique. We exploit the spontaneous evolution of the TiO2 nanopowder to revisit the fabrication procedure of the TiO2 photoelectrode for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The controlled microstructure TiO2 film was used in DSSCs, which, to the best of our knowledge, achieved the highest power conversion efficiency of 9.65% using N719 dye in sensitizing the TiO2 photoanode.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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