Block copolymer directed synthesis of mesoporous TiO 2 for dye-sensitized solar cells

Mihaela Nedelcu, Jinwoo Lee, Edward J. W. Crossland, Scott C. Warren, M. Christopher Orilall, Stefan Guldin, Sven Hüttner, Catarina Ducati, Dominik Eder, Ulrich Wiesner, Ullrich Steiner, Henry J. Snaith

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    103 Scopus citations

    Abstract

    The morphology of TiO2 plays an important role in the operation of solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells. By using polyisoprene-block- ethyleneoxide (PI-b-PEO) copolymers as structure directing agents for a sol-gel based synthesis of mesoporous TiO2, we demonstrate a strategy for the detailed control of the semiconductor morphology on the 10 nm length scale. The careful adjustment of polymer molecular weight and titania precursor content is used to systematically vary the material structure and its influence upon solar cell performance is investigated. Furthermore, the use of a partially sp 2 hybridized structure directing polymer enables the crystallization of porous TiO2 networks at high temperatures without pore collapse, improving its performance in solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells. © 2009 The Royal Society of Chemistry.
    Original languageEnglish (US)
    Pages (from-to)134-139
    Number of pages6
    JournalSoft Matter
    Volume5
    Issue number1
    DOIs
    StatePublished - 2009

    Bibliographical note

    KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01
    Acknowledgements: M. N., S. H., and U. S. acknowledge financial support from the European network "PolyFilm" under RTN-6. This work was in part funded by EPSRC, NSF (DMR-0404195) and KAUST. The sabbatical leave of U. W. was supported by the Leverhulme Trust and EPSRC. C. D. acknowledges the Royal Society for Funding. We thank Richard Friend for support.
    This publication acknowledges KAUST support, but has no KAUST affiliated authors.

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