A facile approach for high surface area electrospun TiO sub(2) nanostructures for photovoltaic and photocatalytic applications

• Published in: Dalton transactions : an international journal of inorganic chemistry Vol. 43; no. 12; pp. 4830 - 4837
• Main Authors: Arun, T A, Madhavan, Asha Anish, Chacko, Daya K, Anjusree, G S, Deepak, T G, Thomas, Sara, Nair, Shantikumar V, Nair, ASreekumaran
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.02.2014
• Subjects: Anisotropy; Electrospinning; Photocatalysis; Photovoltaic cells; Solar cells; Surface area; Titanium dioxide; Zinc oxide
• ISSN: 1477-9226; 1477-9234
• DOI: 10.1039/c3dt52780h

A rice-shaped TiO sub(2)-ZnO composite was prepared by electrospinning a mixture comprising the precursors of TiO sub(2) and ZnO in polyvinyl acetate polymer dissolved in N,N-dimethyl acetamide. The electrospun nanofibers upon heat treatment in air resulted in collapse of the continuous fiber morphology and the formation of the rice-shaped TiO sub(2)-ZnO composite. The TiO sub(2)-ZnO composite was then treated with dilute acetic acid under hydrothermal conditions to etch ZnO from the TiO sub(2)-ZnO composite to get coral-shaped anisotropic TiO sub(2). The structural anisotropy of TiO sub(2) produced by the selective etching of ZnO resulted in a high surface area of 148 m super(2) g super(-1) for the TiO sub(2). The initial and final materials were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, Raman and XPS spectroscopies, powder X-ray diffraction and BET surface area measurements. The utility of the anisotropic TiO sub(2) in photovoltaics and photocatalysis was explored. Dye-sensitized solar cells fabricated using the TiO sub(2) showed a conversion efficiency of 6.54% as against 4.8% for a control experiment with the rice-shaped TiO sub(2). The anisotropic TiO sub(2) also showed good photocatalysis in the degradation of methyl orange dye and phenol.