Search

Herein, we are reporting carboxylic acid-functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes-polyindole/Ti2O3 hybrid nanocomposite (f-MWCNTs-PIN/Ti2O3) synthesis, phase structure and morphology studies with extended applications. FE-SEM, and TGA results shows that the hybrid nanocomposite having good thermal stability. This hybrid nanocomposite is utilized to prepare a photo-anode of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Interestingly, the doped with TiO2 (f-MWCNTs-PIN/Ti2O3/TiO2) hybrid nanocomposite based photo-anode for DSSC reported power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 8.6% and it is about 6% higher than that of un-doped TiO2 photo-anode. The corresponding short-circuit photocurrent density (Jsc) of 18.30 mA cm−2, open circuit voltage (Voc) of 0.71 V, fill factor (FF) of 0.66, and dye absorption amount is 0.16 × 10−6 mol cm−2 respectively. The obtained results suggest that the hybrid nanocomposite is a suitable photo-anodic material for DSSCs applications.

The controlled morphological TiO 2 particles have gained great importance in a wide variety of applications due to their promising physico-chemical properties. In this study, TiO 2 microstructures with various shapes to utilize as scattering layer in dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) applications were successfully synthesized via different hydrothermal conditions. The effects of the versatile preparation parameters including the amount of titania precursor and surfactant, the addition of ethanol/water, and the hydrothermal process temperature and time on the TiO 2 morphology were investigated. The structural and morphological analysis clearly shown that the preparation conditions played crucial roles in the morphology, particle size, and crystalline phase of the TiO 2 microparticles. Different kinds of shapes such as rice- (∼1.10 μm (l) and ∼0.41 μm (w)), star- (∼3.60 μm) and flower-like (3.75 μm) TiO 2 morphological structures were obtained. The morphology and size of the TiO 2 particles were mainly governed by the concentrations of titanium tetraisopropoxide (TTIP) precursor, amounts of tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH) surfactant and hydrothermal temperatures and durations. The as-prepared rice-shaped TiO 2 was composed of mixed anatase and brookite binary phases, whereas the star- and flower-shaped TiO 2 microstructures were consisted of ternary anatase, rutile, and brookite crystalline TiO 2 phases. The three different rice-, star-, and flower-shaped TiO 2 microstructures were employed as scattering layers for photoanodes in DSSCs. Among them, the star-like TiO 2 photoanode based DSSC exhibited the highest power conversion efficiency of 9.56%, which was also better than those of the devices fabricated without scattering layer (a-TiO 2 , 8.38%) and with commercial P25 as scattering layer (a-TiO 2 /P25-TiO 2 , 8.52%) at the same film thickness of ∼14 μm.