Hydrothermal seeded synthesis of mesoporous titania for application in dye-sensitised solar cells (DSSCs)

Abstract

A modified-templated-hydrothermal technique was used to prepare mesoporous titania powders through the interaction of tiny anatase seeds (< 5 nm) with block-copolymer Pluronic P123 in the presence (acidic route) and absence of HCl (neutral route). The calcined neutral powders featured a full anatase crystalline domain with high surface area (106.0 m2 g-1) and large pore sizes (8.0 nm). Meanwhile, the acidic route produced higher surface area (156.7 m2 g-1)), larger pores (9.7 nm) and a mixture of anatase and rutile crystalline phases. The neutral route derived titania films showed higher DSSC performance up to a global efficiency of 5% using N3-ruthenium complex dye.