Hierarchically Porous TiO₂ Electrodes Fabricated by Dual Templating Methods for Dye‐Sensitized Solar Cells

Abstract

Dual templating methods to control hierarchical meso‐ and macroscale pores in TiO2 electrodes for dye‐sensitized solar cells are developed. The colloidal assembly of mesoscale particles in holographic lithography macroscopic patterns produces dual templates for hierarchically porous electrodes. The hierarchical TiO2 electrodes show synergistic effects of strong scattering and long charge recombination times, resulting in an efficiency comparable to the efficiency of conventional TiO2 electrodes.

A colloidoscope of colloid-based porous materials and their uses

“…4,82 Additionally, the porous materials of an inverse opal can be backfilled by smaller colloidal particles ( Figure 4B,iii), producing more complex materials with higher porosity and choice of materials. 88,140 (iv) Crack formation and homogeneity. The formation of cracks is generally unwanted and results from various origins.…”

Enhancing the Light Harvesting Capacity of the Photoanode Films in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

“…C. Y. Cho et al reported an interesting method to generate hierarchical electrodes consisting of meso-and macroscale pores (Cho et al, 2011). Mesoscale colloidal particles and lithographically patterned macropores were used as the dual templates, with the colloidal particles assembled within the macropores.…”

Laser interference fabrication of large-area functional periodic structure surface

“…Four-beam interference is one of the interference techniques used for the fabrication of large-area functional structures due to its outstanding capability in one-step realization of 2D/3D structures [15,16,18,[25][26][27][28]. As shown in Fig.…”

“…The flexible tuning of beam angle widens the period from microscale to nanoscale and promotes its widespread applications in surface science [5]. With the detailed multibeam interference and multi-exposure of two-beam interference, structures such as microlenses [10], photonic quasi-lattices [24], and micro/nanopillars (micro/nanoholes) [18,25], and several micro/nanostructures based on these templates [11,16] are easily demonstrated.…”

“…Laser interference demonstrates micro/nanostructures in air conditions by using a self-redistributed light intensity directly recorded in light-sensitive materials rather than using expensive masks [12]. Flexible structures, such as 1D gratings [14], 2D pillars/holes [15], and 3D crystal-like structures [16], have been produced.…”