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Hydrothermal growth of one-dimensional Ce-doped TiO2 nanostructures for solid-state DSSCs comprising Mg-doped CuCrO2

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Abstract

In this work, hydrothermal method was used to grow the one-dimensional Ce-doped TiO2 nanostructures on the fluorine-doped tin oxide glass. The incorporation of cerium atoms into the TiO2 lattice was investigated by structural and electrical analyses. The results showed that TiO2 nanorod arrays had maximum electrical conductivity for 3 % of Ce dopant. The increase in the electrical conductivity can be ascribed to the formation of oxygen vacancy in TiO2 nanostructures with Ce doping. The morphology of the as-grown nanorods revealed that the diameter of the TiO2 nanorods increased with Ce doping concentration. Hydrothermal etching treatment was performed on the as-grown 3 % Ce-doped TiO2 nanorod arrays in hydrochloric acid solution at 160 °C for different time durations. The obtained results clearly showed that the morphology change from the nanorods to the nanotubes occurred after 4 h of etching during hydrothermal treatment. In addition, sol–gel process was employed to synthesize 5 % Mg-doped CuCrO2 nanoparticles with p-type conductivity as solid-state electrolyte. The solid-state DSSCs fabricated using hydrothermally treated 3 % Ce-doped TiO2 nanorods displayed better photovoltaic performance than those made from the untreated ones. This is attributed to the larger specific surface of the hydrothermally treated nanorods compared with the untreated ones. The dye-loading measurement confirmed that the amounts of adsorbed dye on the surface of hydrothermally treated nanorods were higher than that of the untreated ones.

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Iran National Science Foundation (INSF), under Grant number 93034818.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laser and Plasma Research Institute, Shahid Beheshti University, G.C., Evin, 1983969411, Tehran, Iran

    Morteza Asemi & Majid Ghanaatshoar

  2. Solar Cells Research Group, Shahid Beheshti University, G.C., Evin, 1983969411, Tehran, Iran

    Morteza Asemi & Majid Ghanaatshoar

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  1. Morteza Asemi
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Correspondence to Majid Ghanaatshoar.

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Asemi, M., Ghanaatshoar, M. Hydrothermal growth of one-dimensional Ce-doped TiO2 nanostructures for solid-state DSSCs comprising Mg-doped CuCrO2 . J Mater Sci 52, 489–503 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-016-0348-z

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