Benefits of dispersion solvents with more OH groups in electrospray preparation of TiO2 photoelectrode for the improvement of DSSC performance
| Autor: | Dan-Hua Mu, Juan Song, Mi Baoxiu, Tong-Jun Zhu, Hong-Lei Qin, Zhiqiang Gao, Wei Huang, Xin-Yan Zhao |
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| Rok vydání: | 2014 |
| Předmět: |
Materials science
Scanning electron microscope Analytical chemistry General Chemistry Condensed Matter Physics Electronic Optical and Magnetic Materials Anode Biomaterials Solvent chemistry.chemical_compound Dye-sensitized solar cell chemistry Dynamic light scattering Chemical engineering Materials Chemistry Glycerol Electrical and Electronic Engineering Dispersion (chemistry) Ethylene glycol |
| Zdroj: | Organic Electronics. 15:969-976 |
| ISSN: | 1566-1199 |
| Popis: | TiO2 anode prepared by electrospray (ES) method using dispersion solvents of ethylene glycol (EG) or glycerol enhanced the performance of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) compared to the conventional solvent of ethanol. TiO2 dispersion in EG or glycerol were found more stable as demonstrated by dynamic light scattering (DLS) experiments. Infrared spectra (IR) revealed that dispersion solvent with more hydroxyl (OH) groups could interact with TiO2 more effectively, leading to higher stability of TiO2 suspension, and enabling higher TiO2 concentration, which are beneficial to mass production by utilizing stable suspension as well as reducing deposition time. When ethanol is used as dispersion solvent, the nozzle is often clogged by TiO2 block due to fast evaporation of ethanol at the nozzle tip. When EG and glycerol are used, this problem does not appear because of their nonvolatile nature. In addition, higher conductivity of EG and glycerol also helps to generate smaller droplet in ES process, thus more uniform TiO2 films is expected. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) study showed that while hierarchically structured TiO2 (HS-TiO2) spheres were formed in TiO2 anode by ES deposition using any one of three solvents, the secondary grain sizes of TiO2 in the EG and glycerol based anodes were bigger. As a result, better DSSC performance was achieved based on TiO2 anode prepared by ES procedure using dispersion solvent of glycerol under high TiO2 concentration. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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