Preparation of Porous TiO 2 Thin Films by Poly(vinyl chloride)-graft-poly(N-vinyl pyrrolidone) and Their Applications to Dye-sensitized Solar Cells

Abstract

Mesoporous titanium dioxide (TiO2) thin films were prepd. using poly(vinyl chloride)-graft-poly(N-vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVC-g-PVP) as a templating agent via sol-gel process. Grafting of PVC chains from PVC backbone was done by atom transfer radical polymn. (ATRP) technique. The successful grafting of PVP to synthesize PVC-g-PVP was checked by fourier-transform IR spectroscopy (FT-IR) and gel permeation chromatog. (GPC). The carbonyl group interaction of PVC-g-PVP graft copolymer with TiO2 was confirmed by FT-IR. The porous morphologies of the TiO2 films generated after calcination at 450°C was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and SEM (SEM). The mesoporous TiO2 films with 580 nm in thickness were used as a photoelectrode for solid state dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) and showed an energy conversion efficiency of 1.05% at 100 mW/cm2. [on SciFinder(R)]