Improved performance in dye-sensitized solar cells by rationally tailoring anodic TiO2 nanotube length

Morphology-controllable polycrystalline TiO2 nanorod arrays for efficient charge collection in dye-sensitized solar cells

“…Recently, TiO 2 has been intensively studied in various fields such as solar cells [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10], photocatalysis [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18], lithium batteries [19][20][21][22] and sensors [23,24], because they are photoelectrochemically active, highly stable and environmentally benign etc. By different preparation ways, TiO 2 could be tailored into nanostructures with diverse geometries, including nanotubes [25], nanowires [26], nano-flowers [27], nano-tapes [28] and so on, which would further modify the properties of TiO 2 [29].…”

“…By different preparation ways, TiO 2 could be tailored into nanostructures with diverse geometries, including nanotubes [25], nanowires [26], nano-flowers [27], nano-tapes [28] and so on, which would further modify the properties of TiO 2 [29]. For device applications, vertically-aligned one-dimensional (1-D) TiO 2 nanostructure arrays could be fabricated on a substrate via designed "bottom-up" or "top-down" approaches [3,7,[29][30][31][32][33][34][35]. These ordered TiO 2 nanostructure arrays provide direct pathways for charge transport, and meanwhile they preserve large specific surface areas as well as facilitate the filling of other guest materials.…”

“…For example, hexagonal-arranged TiO 2 nanopore arrays with tunable pore diameters could be fabricated on arbitrary substrates by soft template imprinting using viscous TiO 2 sols as resists [30,31]. Highly-ordered TiO 2 nanotube arrays with their length in a large range could be prepared on a titanium sheet by electrochemical anodization [3,7].…”

Electrochemical methods for template-assisted synthesis of nanostructured materials

“…Similarly, titanium dioxide (TiO 2 )-covered nanoporous alumina membranes synthesized through different techniques (sol-gel, CVD, ALD, and so on) have been successfully applied for many purposes (Imai et al, 1999;Shin et al, 2004;Banerjee, 2011). TiO 2 nanotube arrays, obtained by anodic oxidation of titanium (Zwilling et al, 1999;Gong et al, 2001;Macak et al, 2005;Grimes, 2007;Roy et al, 2011;Zhong et al, 2012), have also been used as templates for the electrodeposition of metallic and/or magnetic nanowires. Prida et al (2005) reported for the first time the fabrication of nickel nanocylinders into TiO 2 nanotubes by means of pulsed electrodeposition.…”

Sonication-polished anodic TiO2 nanotube array-based photoanode for efficient solar energy conversion

“…In a PEC system, the employed semiconductor nanomaterials usually have multiple functions, such as harvesting photonics, transporting charge carriers, and catalyzing the PEC reactions at interfaces. Recently, TiO 2 nanotube arrays prepared by an electrochemical anodization method (anodic TiO 2 nanotube arrays (NTAs)) have attracted great attentions in the PEC areas [2,[20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28], which could be explained by the following reasons. First, this is closely related to the intrinsic features of TiO 2 , such as non-toxicity, low cost, and high stability and flexibility to surface modification.…”