Synthesis of porous titanium dioxide nanorods/nanoparticles and their properties for dye sensitized solar cells

Titanium dioxide nanorods/nanoparticles (NR/NP) were prepared via hydrothermal process. The crystallographic information of prepared samples was confirmed with PXRD, which shows anatase phase with small fraction of brookite phase. The FESEM results indicate that the formed nanostructures are having both nanorods and nanoparticles. From the HRTEM results, the lattice images of nanostructures were clearly observed, which indicates that these nanostructures possess high degrees of crystallinity. From the distance between the adjacent lattice fringes, we can assign the lattice plane on the nanostructures. The nanoparticles showed lattice spacing of 0.35 nm for the (101) plane of the anatase phase. BET analysis shows that the surface area of the sample is 37.97 m²/g. In the BJH approach, multiple pores are observed (2.6, 4.7 and 7.3 nm) in the structure. The obtained porous NR/NP nanostructure was applied to DSSC. The solar energy conversion efficiency (η) of the NR/NP based DSSC was about 2.12 % with J_sc of 5.56 mA/cm², V_oc of 0.61 V and FF of 62.87 %.