Titanium Dioxide Nanomaterials for Photovoltaic Applications

Abstract

Registro de acceso restringido Este recurso no está disponible en acceso abierto por política de la editorial. No obstante, se puede acceder al texto completo desde la Universitat Jaume I o si el usuario cuenta con suscripción. Registre d'accés restringit Aquest recurs no està disponible en accés obert per política de l'editorial. No obstant això, es pot accedir al text complet des de la Universitat Jaume I o si l'usuari compta amb subscripció. Restricted access item This item isn't open access because of publisher's policy. The full--text version is only available from Jaume I University or if the user has a running suscription to the publisher's contents.

Unraveling the Intrinsic Structures that Influence the Transport of Charges in TiO2 Electrodes

“…[33,43] By dissolving titanium precursor into the niobium complex solution, the hydroxyl groups in the (Nb(OH) 2 Cl 4 ) − ions will readily react with the formed (TiO(OH 2 ) 5 ) 2+ ions through olation reaction (so-called corner sharing). Moreover, the opposite sign between the positively charged (TiO(OH 2 ) 5 ) 2+ ion and the hydrated niobium ions (with negative charge) will also promote the olation reaction by the electrostatic attraction. After the olation reaction, the proton in the bridged hydroxyl group of the dimer (or trimer) has very strong tendency to spontaneously transfer to the oxo group via intramolecular oxolation, due to increase in the positive charge of the OH group and catalyzed by the acidic environment.…”

“…[2a,4] Theoretically, the electronic properties of mesoporous TiO 2 electrodes are sensitively dependent on the shape, exposed facets of the crystals, crystallite size, crystalline phase, and crystallinity of the TiO 2 building blocks. [5] As motivated by the pioneering work of hydrogen generation through water photoelectrolysis and the development of efficient dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), [2a,4a,b] tremendous efforts have been devoted to preparing TiO 2 nanostructures with controllable morphologies and tunable electronic structures for better charge transport. [6] Despite of intensive studies, electrodes with elaborate configurations still cannot exhibit fully desired electronic behaviors during the operation of the PEC cells.…”

Strategies for designing metal oxide nanostructures

“…Their nanostructures have emerged as an important class of materials with a rich collection of properties and general potential for various applications, including electrodes, highmobility transistors, gas sensors, photovoltaics, photonic devices, and non-volatile memories [1][2][3][4]. In particular, metal oxide nanostructures have led to a revival of interest in them for wide applications in energy conversion, harvesting, and storage devices, such as lithium-ion batteries [5,6], fuel cells [7][8][9], solar cells [10,11], nanogenerators [12,13], hydrogen production by water photolysis and its storage [14][15][16][17], water and air purification [18,19]. In all of these new technologies, nanomaterials are increasingly playing a critical role by either increasing the efficiency of the energy storage and conversion processes or by improving device design and performance.…”

Controlled Assembly of Nanorod TiO2 Crystals via a Sintering Process: Photoanode Properties in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

“…Grätzel's group for the first time demonstrated the use of highly dispersed TiO 2 nanoparticles as anode materials for high-efficiency DSSCs [2]. The synthesis of highly crystallized TiO 2 nanoparticles is generally required in order to develop high-performance photoelectrode materials in DSSCs [3]. Besides, it is necessary to engineer the porous layer of deposited TiO 2 nanoparticles to (a) enhance the monolayer dye adsorption to the surface of TiO 2 nanoparticles, (b) efficiently collect the generated electrons and conduct them out, and (c) suppress the recombination phenomenon to enable efficient electron transport inside TiO 2 films which plays a crucial role in the solar cell's performance.…”