Sasi Soorya, Chandran Akash, Sugunan Sunish K, Krishna Ardra C, Nair Pankajakshan Radhakrishnan, Peter Aneena, Shaji Arsha N, Subramanian Kavasseri R V, Pai Narendra, Mathew Suresh
Advanced Molecular Materials Research Centre, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam 686 560, Kerala, India.
School of Chemical Sciences, Mahatma Gandhi University, Priyadarshini Hills, Kottayam 686 560, Kerala, India.
ACS Omega. 2022 Jul 13;7(29):25094-25109. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.2c01425. eCollection 2022 Jul 26.
TiO nanoparticles surface-modified with silane moieties, which can be directly coated on a flexible substrate without the requirement of any binder materials and postsintering processes, are synthesized and characterized using X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, photoluminescence spectroscopy, time-correlated single-photon counting, and transmission electron microscopy. The viability of the prepared surface-modified TiO (M-TiO) sheets as a catalyst for the photo-induced degradation of a model dye, methylene blue, was checked using UV-visible absorption spectroscopy. The data suggest that, compared to unmodified TiO, M-TiO sheets facilitate better dye-degradation, which leads to a remarkable photocatalytic activity that results in more than 95% degradation of the dye in the first 10 min and more than 99% of the degradation in the first 50 min of the photocatalytic experiments. We also demonstrate that M-TiO can be recycled with negligible reduction in photocatalytic activity. Further, the photovoltaic properties of the developed M-TiO sheets were assessed using UV-visible absorption spectroscopy, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and photochronoamperometry. Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) fabricated using M-TiO as the photoanode exhibited a photoconversion efficiency of 4.1% under direct sunlight. These experiments suggested that M-TiO sheets show enhanced photovoltaic properties compared to unmodified TiO sheets, and that, when N-719 dye is incorporated, the dye-TiO interaction is more favorable for M-TiO than bare TiO. The simple solution processing method demonstrated in this paper rendered a highly flexible photoanode made of M-TiO with superior charge-separation efficiency to an electrode made of bare TiO. We propose that our findings on the photovoltaic properties of M-TiO open up arenas of further improvement and a wide scope for the large-scale production of flexible DSSCs on plastic substrates at room temperature in a cost-effective way.
合成了用硅烷部分表面改性的二氧化钛纳米颗粒，其可直接涂覆在柔性基板上，无需任何粘合剂材料和烧结后处理，并使用X射线衍射、傅里叶变换红外光谱、扫描电子显微镜、布鲁诺尔-埃米特-泰勒法、X射线光电子能谱、拉曼光谱、光致发光光谱、时间相关单光子计数和透射电子显微镜对其进行表征。使用紫外-可见吸收光谱检查了制备的表面改性二氧化钛（M-TiO）片材作为模型染料亚甲基蓝光诱导降解催化剂的可行性。数据表明，与未改性的二氧化钛相比，M-TiO片材促进了更好的染料降解，从而导致显著的光催化活性，在光催化实验的前10分钟内染料降解率超过95%，在前50分钟内降解率超过99%。我们还证明，M-TiO可以循环使用，光催化活性的降低可忽略不计。此外，使用紫外-可见吸收光谱、电化学阻抗谱（EIS）和光电流计时法评估了所开发的M-TiO片材的光伏性能。使用M-TiO作为光阳极制造的染料敏化太阳能电池（DSSC）在直射阳光下的光转换效率为4.1%。这些实验表明，与未改性的TiO片材相比，M-TiO片材具有增强的光伏性能，并且当掺入N-719染料时，染料与TiO的相互作用对M-TiO比裸TiO更有利。本文展示的简单溶液加工方法制备了由M-TiO制成的高度柔性光阳极，其电荷分离效率优于由裸TiO制成的电极。我们认为，我们关于M-TiO光伏性能的研究结果为进一步改进开辟了领域，并为在室温下以具有成本效益的方式在塑料基板上大规模生产柔性DSSC提供了广阔的空间。
