Synthesis and Characterization of TiO2 Nanoparticles for Solar Cell Applications

Abstract

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles were synthesized using three different approaches successfully. These approaches were adopted as per different applications of TiO2 nanoparticles. These samples were characterized using X- ray diffraction (XRD) technique. XRD revealed nanocrystalline regime of TiO2 nanoparticles in each approach. The calculated size of nanoparticle was less than 11 nm in the used chemical approaches. Prominent and broad peaks were observed in XRD pattern for all samples, which showed all samples were in nanocrytalline form. The particle size was calculated for first three most intense prominent XRD peaks. By adopting sol gel method using Titanium tetra isopropoxide (TTIP) as precursor, the synthesized Titania particles were pure anatas and of size 7 to 11nm and using co-precipitation method using TiCl3 as precursor synthesized Titania were pure rutile and of size 3 to 7 nm. The co-precipitation method has been best suited for getting smaller nanoparticles. It was also observed that Solid state mechanical reduction root can be used to reduce the size of Titania micro-particles up to about 60 nm but phase of nanoparticles remains same as starting microparticles. It has been seen that the material properties of TiO2 can be tuned by proper method of synthesis. The work may play important role to choose particular synthesis method for specific application. These nano synthesized TiO2 materials may be used in a wide range of applications such as dye sensitized solar cell, photocatalysis, antibacterial, environment pollutant removal and photoactivated self cleaning properties etc.