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Rutile TiO2 nanorod arrays incorporated with α-alumina for high efficiency dye sensitized solar cells

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Abstract

Rutile TiO2 nanorod arrays (TNAs) incorporating with α-alumina (α-Al2O3) thin film have been fabricated on the fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) by a modest and flexible doctor-blade technique-based hydrothermal method. The crystallinity of α-Al2O3 on TNAs and morphological control of the photo-anodes were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV–Vis spectrophotometry, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), energy-dispersive spectrometric (EDS) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). The growth of α-Al2O3 crystals is influenced by aluminium seed concentrations. The growth mechanism of different morphological TNAs due to the incorporation of α-Al2O3 was discussed in detail. It has also demonstrated to the application of dye sensitized solar cells. Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) prepared with 3% α-Al2O3 incorporated TNAs shows an improved short-circuit current density of 15.23 mA cm−2, open-circuit photo voltage of 0.68 V, fill factor of 0.63 and a power conversion efficiency of 6.5%.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by grant no. 34/14/49/2014-BRNS with ATC from the Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences (BRNS) innovation major project proposal of the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), Government of India.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Department of Physics, Erode Sengunthar Engineering College, Erode, 638 057, India

    N. Sriharan, T. S. Senthil & N. M. Ganesan

  2. Department of Chemistry, College of Natural Sciences, Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan, Gyeongbuk, 38541, Republic of Korea

    Misook Kang

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  1. N. Sriharan
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  2. T. S. Senthil
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  3. Misook Kang
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  4. N. M. Ganesan
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Correspondence to T. S. Senthil or Misook Kang.

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Sriharan, N., Senthil, T.S., Kang, M. et al. Rutile TiO2 nanorod arrays incorporated with α-alumina for high efficiency dye sensitized solar cells. Appl. Phys. A 125, 118 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-019-2407-1

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