Abstract
We report a low temperature synthetic method for preparing flower-like TiO 2 nanospheres (f-TiO 2 NS) directly from an amphiphilic block-graft copolymer precursor. The copolymer, consisting of poly(ethylene glycol) titanium triisopropoxide (PEGTTIP) and polystyrene (PS), was synthesized via atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) and was characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. The copolymer was directly hydrolyzed at 90 °C for 6 h without any additives to generate rutile-phase f-TiO 2 NS that were approximately 800 nm in size, as confirmed by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), energy-filtering transmission electron microscopy (EF-TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The energy conversion efficiency of quasi-solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells (qssDSSCs) fabricated with f-TiO 2 NS (4.4% at 100 mW/cm 2) as a scattering layer (SL) was greater than those without f-TiO 2 NS (3.8% for 10 μm, 3.9% for 17 μm) and was quite comparable to cells with a commercial scattering layer (CSL). The improved efficiency is attributed to the increased dye loading and improved light scattering effect, as confirmed by incident photon-to-electron conversion efficiency (IPCE) measurements
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 27-33 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | Electrochimica Acta |
Volume | 80 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2012 Oct 1 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We acknowledge financial support from National Research Foundation (NRF) grants funded by the Korean government (MEST) through Korea CCS R&D Center and the Active Polymer Center for Pattern Integration ( R11-2007-050-00000-0 ). This work was also supported by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy through the Human Resources Development of the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning (KETEP) ( 20104010100500 ).
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Chemical Engineering(all)
- Electrochemistry