NDLI: Multi-layered mesoporous TiO<sub>2</sub> thin films with large pores and highly crystalline frameworks for efficient photoelectrochemical conversion

Content Provider	Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)
Author	Lv, Yingying Rahman, Mohammed M. Khan, Sher Bahader Zhang, Renyuan Luo, Wei Zhang, Junyong Xu, Ming Zhao, Dongyuan Feng, Dan Wu, Haoyu Asiri, Abdullah M. Zheng, Gengfeng
Copyright Year	2013
Abstract	Mesoporous thin films with various compositions are unique architectures for photoelectrochemical (PEC) solar cells. In this paper, we report the synthesis of highly ordered, multi-layered, continuous mesoporous TiO2 thin films with uniform large pores, crystalline walls and tunable film thickness, via a ligand-assisted evaporation induced self assembly (EISA) method. A Ti(acetylacetone) precursor and a diblock copolymer PEO-b-PS are employed for the controlled assembly of the TiO2/template mesostructure, followed by a two-step pyrolysis that generates carbon residue as an intermediate protection layer to support the TiO2 framework and mesostructures during the crystallization. Other transition metal ion dopants (such as Cr, Ni and Co) can be facilely incorporated into the TiO2 frameworks by co-assembly of these metal acetylacetone precursors during the EISA process. The obtained TiO2 thin film possesses an ordered monoclinic mesostructure distorted from a (110)-oriented primitive cubic structure, uniform and tunable large pores of 10–30 nm, a large surface area of ∼100 m2 g−1 and a high crystallinity anatase wall. The film thickness can be well controlled from 150 nm to several microns to tune the absorption, with the capability of generating free-standing film morphologies. Furthermore, this designed architecture allows for effective post-deposition of other small-bandgap semiconductor nanomaterials inside the large, open and interconnecting mesopores, leading to significantly improved solar absorption and photoconversion. As a proof-of-concept, we demonstrate that the photoanodes made of 4.75 μm thick mesoporous TiO2 film with deposited cadmium sulfide quantum dots exhibit excellent performance in PEC water splitting, with an optimized photocurrent density of 6.03 mA cm−2 and a photoconversion efficiency of 3.9%. These multi-layered mesoporous TiO2-based thin films can serve as a unique architecture for PEC and other solar energy conversion and utilization.
Starting Page	1591
Ending Page	1599
Page Count	9
File Format	HTM / HTML PDF
ISSN	20507488
Volume Number	1
Issue Number	5
Journal	Journal of Materials Chemistry A
DOI	10.1039/c2ta00588c
Language	English
Publisher	Royal Society of Chemistry
Access Restriction	Open
Subject Keyword	PEC Photoelectrochemical cell Mesoporous material Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 Acetylacetone Copolymer Pyrolysis Carbon Transition metal Ion Monoclinic crystal system Anatase Semiconductor Nanomaterials Micrometre Cadmium sulfide Water splitting Photocurrent Solar energy
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Chemistry Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment Materials Science

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