Synthesis of Mesoporous Zn-doped TiO 2 Nanoparticles by Colloidal Emulsion Aphrons and Their Use for Dye-sensitized Sola
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Synthesis of Mesoporous Zn-doped TiO2 Nanoparticles by Colloidal Emulsion Aphrons and Their Use for Dye-sensitized Solar Cells Thanawat Buapueana and Somnuk Jarudilokkula,* a
King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Bangkok, 10140 Thailand *e-mail: [email protected] Received August 22, 2019; revised March 11, 2020; accepted July 17, 2020
Abstract—Mesoporous structure of Zn-doped TiO2 as a semiconductor of metal oxide material for high-performance dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) was studied. The Zn-doped TiO2 nanoparticles were synthesized by the colloidal emulsion aphrons (CEAs) method supported by sodium lauryl sulfate (SDS) surfactant with adsorption isotherm type IV and H3-type hysteresis loops. The excellent photoconversion efficiency of 10% Zn-doped TiO2 exhibited the overall improvement of solar cell performance. The 10% Zn-doped TiO2 had a high specific surface area (155 cm3/g). It showed a high photoconversion efficiency of about 6.590% with 28% improvement in the photocurrent density (JSC) compared to undoped TiO2 nanoparticles. There was a reduction of the electron recombination and this synergistically improved the electron mobility and charge collection capability through electrodes in the solar cell. Keywords: mesoporous, titanium dioxide, colloidal emulsion aphrons, dye-sensitized solar cells DOI: 10.1134/S1070427220080169
INTRODUCTION Mesoporous TiO2 based dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have been investigated worldwide over the past decade as an attractive and promising solar harvesting device due to their mild impact on the environment, stability, and excellent electronic properties [1–5]. The application of different techniques can be used for the preparation of TiO2 nanoparticles. A high surface area of mesoporous TiO2 was successfully synthesized by the sol-gel method [6–8]. Slow evaporation at a low temperature and humidity was used to control the wellordered nanostructure TiO2. This method was assisted by block-copolymer with evaporation induced selfassembly (EISA) method [9–13]. Colloidal gas aphrons (CGAs) is a technique used for approaching high surface area mesoporous metal oxide, which was firstly described by Sebba (Fig. 1) [14]. Sebba described that CGAs are not like conventional bubbles, which are surrounded by monolayer surfactant. The proposed structure of CGAs was comprised of gas bubbles formed by vigorous stirring to obtain multilayer surfactant, which can last for
anywhere between a matter of minutes or several hours. CGAs have been defined as the surfactant stabilized gas microbubbles and the aphron size dispersion and rheology have both been investigated [15]. The colloidal dispersions are used for protein recovery and separation of organic dyes from wastewater applications [16, 17]. The gas core of CGAs was replaced by a waterin-oil (W/O) emulsion in order to develop the water-
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Outer surface of surfactant shell Inner surface of surfactant shell
Gas core
Soapy shell Electrical double layer Bulk water
Fig. 1. Structure of
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