TY - JOUR
T1 - Rapid and Low-Temperature Processing of Mesoporous and Nanocrystalline TiO2 Film Using Microwave Irradiation
AU - Mamun, Md Ataul
AU - Chowdhury, Ashraful Haider
AU - Chen, Ke
AU - Pathak, Rajesh
AU - Qiao, Qiquan
AU - Logue, Brian A.
N1 - Funding Information:
We gratefully acknowledge funding support from the State of South Dakota Board of Regents through their Collaboration Grant 2016 program and the Surface Engineering Research Center. The views of the authors do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the South Dakota Board of Regents or the state of South Dakota.
PY - 2018/11/26
Y1 - 2018/11/26
N2 - Nanoporous (np)-TiO2 films have multiple applications, including dye-sensitized and perovskite solar cells. However, preparation of np-TiO2 films on transparent conductive oxide-coated surfaces (e.g., fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO)) requires high-temperature sintering (450-500 °C) for at least 30-60 min in a conventional oven. Here, we introduce a novel technique to rapidly produce np-TiO2 films on FTO-coated glass substrates via microwave (MW) irradiation. np-TiO2 films were sintered on FTO-glass substrates in less than 10 min at temperatures less than 260 °C using an optimized MW irradiation program and a simple MW attenuation technique. Significantly, cracking of FTO-coated glass substrates was avoided during MW irradiation, which was a limiting problem in previous studies. MW-developed films were evaluated with UV-vis absorption spectrophotometry, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and atomic force microscopy, with MW-developed films (>4 min) producing essentially identical characteristics as conventionally annealed films. Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) fabricated with MW-developed films (8 min) demonstrated an overall power conversion efficiency of 7.16% as compared to 7.04% for conventionally-fabricated DSSCs. This rapid and low-temperature sintering technique saves time and energy and may also pave the way for deposition of np-TiO2 films on plastic-based substrates.
AB - Nanoporous (np)-TiO2 films have multiple applications, including dye-sensitized and perovskite solar cells. However, preparation of np-TiO2 films on transparent conductive oxide-coated surfaces (e.g., fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO)) requires high-temperature sintering (450-500 °C) for at least 30-60 min in a conventional oven. Here, we introduce a novel technique to rapidly produce np-TiO2 films on FTO-coated glass substrates via microwave (MW) irradiation. np-TiO2 films were sintered on FTO-glass substrates in less than 10 min at temperatures less than 260 °C using an optimized MW irradiation program and a simple MW attenuation technique. Significantly, cracking of FTO-coated glass substrates was avoided during MW irradiation, which was a limiting problem in previous studies. MW-developed films were evaluated with UV-vis absorption spectrophotometry, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and atomic force microscopy, with MW-developed films (>4 min) producing essentially identical characteristics as conventionally annealed films. Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) fabricated with MW-developed films (8 min) demonstrated an overall power conversion efficiency of 7.16% as compared to 7.04% for conventionally-fabricated DSSCs. This rapid and low-temperature sintering technique saves time and energy and may also pave the way for deposition of np-TiO2 films on plastic-based substrates.
KW - dye-sensitized solar cell
KW - fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO)
KW - low temperature processing
KW - microwave attenuation
KW - microwave irradiation
KW - nanoporous TiO
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U2 - 10.1021/acsaem.8b01287
DO - 10.1021/acsaem.8b01287
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85064829589
VL - 1
SP - 6288
EP - 6294
JO - ACS Applied Energy Materials
JF - ACS Applied Energy Materials
SN - 2574-0962
IS - 11
ER -