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doi: 10.3850/978-981-08-7614-2_IMPRES061
Synthesis and Characterization of Anatase Mesoporous TiO2 with High Surface Area for Dye Sensitized Solar Cells
Satyanarayana Reddy Gajjela1,a, Ananthanarayanan Krishnamoorthy2, Christopher Yap1 and Palani Balaya1
1Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore, 9 Engineering Drive 1, Singapore-117576.
ag0700929@nus.edu.sg
2Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore, National University of Singapore, 7 Engineering Drive 1, Singapore-117574
ABSTRACT
In this study, well-crystallized mesoporous nanostructured anatase TiO2 were prepared by the softtemplate method using cationic surfactants such as octyl-, dodecyl-, cetyl trimethylammonium bromide. These micron-sized mesoporous titanates consist of packed nanograins with diameters ranging from 16 to 20 nm and mean pore sizes of 6-7 nm with a high specific surface area (90 -135 m2.g-1). Applying these mesoporous anatase spheres in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) the maximum overall energy conversion efficiency of 7.5% (a short circuit photocurrent density of 14.2 mA.cm-2, open circuit voltage of 748 mV, and fill factor of 70.83%) were obtained. The latter is 33% higher than that of the commercial TiO2 photoanode. It was demonstrated that due to high surface areas, mesoporous TiO2 can enhance the light harvesting within the photoanodes for DSCs, and their good crystallinity as well as better intra grain contacts within the particles result in the effective charge transport through the film of mesoporous TiO2 spheres.
Keywords: Dye-sensitized solar cells, Mesoporous, Cationic surfactants, Soft-template, Efficiency.
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