Electrospun Nitrogen-doped TiO2 Nanofibrous Thin Film for Photovoltaic Application

Abstract

This research study aims at fabrication of fine size nitrogen doped TiO2 nanofiber using electrospinning method and evaluation of the performance of TiO2 in a photovoltaic cell under visible light irradiation. Undoped and N doped TiO2 nanoparticles were synthesized by sol gel method where titanium isopropoxide was used as the source of TiO2 and ammonium nitrate was used as the source of N dopant. TiO2 /PVA composite material was prepared by stabilizing TiO2 particle in to 10 wt % of PVA (aq) solution in order to prepare thin film that can be coated on photovoltaic (PV) cells. Coating of solid thin film PV cells by TiO2 /PVA nanofibers was conducted using electrospinning and doctor blade method. In both systems, doping the TiO2 with nitrogen improved its optical properties which it successfully lowered the band gap energy from 3.14 to 2.76 eV and shifted its optical response to the visible light region. The presence of O-H stretching vibration, O-H bending and vibration of the N-Ti bond contributed to an increased performance of the PV cells. The electrospun N-doped TiO2 produced better power output than doctor blade method coated PV cells with power of 0.040 and 0.026 mW, respectively.