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Influence of ball milling on textural and morphological properties of TiO2 and TiO2/SiO2 xerogel powders applied in photoanodes for solar cells

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Abstract

In this work, nanocrystalline and mesoporous titania and titania/silica materials were developed, using the sol–gel method, to be applied as alternative material in solar cell devices. The materials present the silica well dispersed in the titania network, allowing efficient anchoring of the sensitizer on the TiO2 surface and enabling fast electron injection that is currently observed between ruthenium complexes and TiO2. The materials were characterized by X-ray diffraction, N2 adsorption–desorption isotherms, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy. The ball milling processing, mainly at 500 rpm, showed to be effective in obtaining adequate textural and morphological properties of the particles, which allow getting a good packing of the photoanode. The use of sol–gel method associated to ball milling results in materials with enhanced electrical properties and high dye loading, which increase the efficiency of the solar devices being that the best device presented the solar cell efficiency 5.5 %.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by CNPq (process 490221/2012-2 and 477599/2013-3) and FAPERGS, Brazilian agencies. The students thank CNPq, CAPES, and FAPERGS, Brazilian agencies for the scholarships. We would also like to thank the Centre of Electron Microscopy CME UFRGS and LRNANO UFRGS.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratório de Sólidos e Superfícies, Instituto de Química, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, CP 15003, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, 91501-970, Brazil

    Marina T. Laranjo, Natália C. Ricardi, Leliz T. Arenas, Edilson V. Benvenutti & Tania Maria Haas Costa

  2. Laboratório de Materiais Aplicados e Interfaces, Instituto de Química, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, CP 15003, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, 91501-970, Brazil

    Matheus C. de Oliveira & Marcos J. L. Santos

  3. Laboratório de Altas Pressões e Materiais Avançados Instituto de Física, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, CP 15051, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, 91501-970, Brazil

    Silvio Buchner & Tania Maria Haas Costa

  4. Universidade Federal de Ciências da Saúde de Porto Alegre Rua Sarmento Leite, 245, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, 91501-970, Brazil

    Silvio Buchner

Authors
  1. Marina T. Laranjo
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  2. Natália C. Ricardi
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  3. Leliz T. Arenas
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  4. Edilson V. Benvenutti
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  5. Matheus C. de Oliveira
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  6. Silvio Buchner
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  7. Marcos J. L. Santos
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  8. Tania Maria Haas Costa
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Correspondence to Tania Maria Haas Costa.

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Laranjo, M.T., Ricardi, N.C., Arenas, L.T. et al. Influence of ball milling on textural and morphological properties of TiO2 and TiO2/SiO2 xerogel powders applied in photoanodes for solar cells. J Solid State Electrochem 20, 1731–1741 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10008-016-3180-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10008-016-3180-0

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