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Formation of Pore Structure and Its Influence on the Mass Transport Property of Vacuum Cold Sprayed TiO2 Coatings Using Strengthened Nanostructured Powder

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Abstract

The pore structure in nano-porous TiO2 coatings influences the ion diffusion property and the photovoltaic performance of dye-sensitized solar cells. In this paper, TiO2 coatings were deposited by vacuum cold spray (VCS) using a strengthened nanostructured powder. The pore structure, ion diffusion, and dye infiltration properties were examined to understand the coating deposition mechanism. Results showed that the pores in the VCS TiO2 coatings presented a bimodal size distribution with two peaks at ~15 and ~50 nm. Based on the impact behavior of spray powder particles, a deposition model was proposed to explain the formation mechanism of the pores in the VCS coating using strengthened nanostructured powder. It was found that, compared to the conventional unimodal-sized nano-pores in TiO2 coatings, the bimodal-sized nano-pores contributed to a higher ion diffusion coefficient of the coatings and thereby a higher photovoltage of the solar cells.

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Acknowledgements

The present project is supported by the NNSFC (No. 51072160, 50602035, 50725101), Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (No. NCET-08-0443), the Key Project of Chinese Ministry of Education (No. 108113).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, Shaanxi, 710049, People’s Republic of China

    Guan-Jun Yang, Kai-Xing Liao, Chang-Jiu Li, Sheng-Qiang Fan, Cheng-Xin Li & Shan Li

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Correspondence to Chang-Jiu Li.

Additional information

This article is an invited paper selected from presentations at the 2011 International Thermal Spray Conference and has been expanded from the original presentation. It is simultaneously published in Thermal Spray 2011: Proceedings of the International Thermal Spray Conference, Hamburg, Germany, September 27-29, 2011, Basil R. Marple, Arvind Agarwal, Margaret M. Hyland, Yuk-Chiu Lau, Chang-Jiu Li, Rogerio S. Lima, and André McDonald, Ed., ASM International, Materials Park, OH, 2011.

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Yang, GJ., Liao, KX., Li, CJ. et al. Formation of Pore Structure and Its Influence on the Mass Transport Property of Vacuum Cold Sprayed TiO2 Coatings Using Strengthened Nanostructured Powder. J Therm Spray Tech 21, 505–513 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11666-012-9741-6

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