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Hierarchical structure and photocatalysis performance of the photo-anode TiO2 film

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Abstract

We herein present a useful technique to design photo-anode films by composing P25 nanoparticles (NPs) with TiO2 nanorod or TiO2 nanotube arrays to optimize the photocatalysis property and overall property of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). After solvothermal and spin-coating process, an interesting hierarchical film containing one-dimensional (1D) TiO2 film and P25 NPs (1D TiO2/P25) was obtained on a fluorine-doped tin oxide substrate. In our study, P25 NPs with high specific surface area can potentially adsorb large numbers of dye molecules when 1D TiO2 arrays provide a straight path for rapid transmission of photo-generated electrons. From the experiment results, the hierarchical photo-anodes indeed exhibit superior properties than that of pristine 1D films. The photoelectric conversion efficiency improves up to 3.96 and 3.69% based on 1D TiO2/P25 DSSCs, which are significantly higher than those of 3.21 and 2.70% of the DSSCs based on 1D TiO2 photoanodes.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Nos. 2017YQ003 and 2014MS32), Beijing outstanding talents cultivation funding project (No. 2013A009005000003) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51102092).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Beijing Key Laboratory of Novel Thin Film Solar Cells, School of Renewable Energy, North China Electric Power University, Beijing, 102206, China

    Mina Guli, Minghan Deng, Theogene Bimenyimana & Zhe Hu

  2. Beijing Key Laboratory of Energy Safety and Clean Utilization, North China Electric Power University, Beijing, 102206, China

    Mina Guli, Minghan Deng, Theogene Bimenyimana & Zhe Hu

Authors
  1. Mina Guli
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  2. Minghan Deng
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  3. Theogene Bimenyimana
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  4. Zhe Hu
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Correspondence to Mina Guli.

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Guli, M., Deng, M., Bimenyimana, T. et al. Hierarchical structure and photocatalysis performance of the photo-anode TiO2 film. Appl. Phys. A 123, 675 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-017-1291-9

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