Fabrication of mesoporous titania membrane of dual-pore system and its photocatalytic activity and dye-sensitized solar cell performance

Seung-Lim Oh, Kyong-Hoon Choi, Ji-Eun Im, Kang-Kyun Wang, Hae-Yong Yaung, Kyungkon Kim, Yong-Rok Kim
2011 Nanotechnology  
We report the fabrication of a novel titania membrane of the dual-pore system that is strategically designed and prepared by a two-step replication process and sol-gel reaction. The primary nanoporous channel structure is fabricated by the cage-like PMMA template (CPT) obtained from the nanoporous alumina membrane and the secondary mesoporous structure is formed by the sol-gel reaction of the lyotropic precursor solution within the CPT. Furthermore the mesoporous titania membrane (MTM) frame
more » ... sists of the titania nanoparticles of 10-12 nm in diameter. Morphology and structural properties of the MTM are investigated by field emission scanning electron microscopy, high resolution transmission electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface area. The photocatalytic activity and the solar energy properties of the MTM are characterized by UV-vis spectrophotometer, spectrofluorometer and photoinduced I -V measurement. The photocatalytic test indicates that the MTM has higher efficiency than the commercial P25 with a good recyclability due to its large-scale membrane style and the preliminary result on the solar cell application shows a solar energy conversion efficiency of 3.35% for the dye-sensitized solar cell utilizing the MTM.
doi:10.1088/0957-4484/22/27/275309 pmid:21613684 fatcat:j7dtsep2mvapzfqxwk4ah4ibau