Development of porous TiO2 nanofibers by solvosonication process for high performance quantum dot sensitized solar cell

• Published in: Solar energy materials and solar cells Vol. 179; pp. 417 - 426
• Main Authors: Singh, Nisha, Salam, Zaahir, Subasri, A., Sivasankar, N., Subramania, A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.06.2018
• Subjects: CdSe Quantum dots; Electrospinning; Porous TiO2 nanofibers; Quantum dots sensitized solar cell; Solvosonication process; Electrospinning; CdSe Quantum dots; Porous TiO2 nanofibers; Quantum dots sensitized solar cell; Solvosonication process
• ISSN: 0927-0248; 1879-3398
• DOI: 10.1016/j.solmat.2018.01.042

In the present study, we synthesized TiO2 nanofibers (NFs) by electrospinning technique and they were subject to solvosonication process using glycerol as a pore forming agent to produce porous TiO2 NFs. The prepared porous TiO2 NFs are seen to improve the light harvesting capability as a result of enhanced light scattering inside the TiO2 NFs and offer a high surface area for maximum adsorption of pre-synthesized CdSe (~4 nm) QDs. The FE-SEM and BET analysis were performed to confirm the surface texture and surface area of porous TiO2 NFs, respectively. Finally, QDSSCs were fabricated using these porous TiO2 NFs sensitized with CdSe QDs as the photoanode, Cu2S nanoparticles as the counter electrode and polysulfide redox couple (S2−/Sx2−) as the electrolyte. The porous TiO2 NFs obtained by solvosonication at the time duration of 90 min has enhanced photocurrent density (Jsc) of 9.21 mA/cm2 with high power conversion efficiency (η) of 2.15% than the conventional TiO2 NFs (η ≈ 1.50%). [Display omitted] •The porous TiO2NFs were prepared by solvosonication process.•Its surface area increases from 29.40 m2g−1 to 42.93 m2g−1.•It enhanced the light absorption in visible region with reduced reflectance.•Attained the cell efficiency of 2.15% for porous TiO2 NFs than that of conventional TiO2 NFs (η ≈ 1.50%).