Title: Prompting electron transport in mesoporous semiconductor electrode by simple film compression

Authors: Xiao Li Zhang; Fuzhi Huang; Yang Chen; Yi-Bing Cheng; Rose Amal

Addresses: ARC Centre of Excellence for Functional Nanomaterials, School of Chemical Engineering, The University of New South Wales, Kensington, Sydney 2052, Australia ' Department of Materials Engineering, Monash University, Clayton, Melbourne 3800, Australia ' Department of Materials Engineering, Monash University, Clayton, Melbourne 3800, Australia ' Department of Materials Engineering, Monash University, Clayton, Melbourne 3800, Australia ' ARC Centre of Excellence for Functional Nanomaterials, School of Chemical Engineering, The University of New South Wales, Kensington, Sydney 2052, Australia

Abstract: Tuning materials packing in the photoanode films through a simple cold isostatic pressing (CIP) post-treatment allows highly efficient charge transport and a dramatically retarded recombination that are witnessed by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) studies. The pressing post-treatment produces densely packed TiO₂ nanoparticle film with fewer relatively large vacancies and better inter-contacts between neighbouring nanoparticles while sustaining the specific surface area and pore size distribution of the mesoporous film. Characterisations of the sensitised photoanodes reveal that the prompted electron transport greatly contributes to a significant enhancement on overall solar energy conversion efficiency (PCE) by up to 11.7%. The demonstrated advantages from the simple but innovative approach are not limited to dye-sensitised solar cell applications and can benefit broad range developments for highly efficient devices, sensors and reactors using mesoporous semiconductor nanoparticle electrode films.

Keywords: electron transport; mesoporous semiconductor electrodes; titanium dioxide; TiO2 nanoparticles; film compression; photoanode films; nanotechnology; solar energy conversion; conversion efficiency; solar power.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNT.2014.063805

International Journal of Nanotechnology, 2014 Vol.11 No.9/10/11, pp.1006 - 1016

Published online: 14 Jan 2015 *

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