Rectangular bunched rutile TiO2 nanorod arrays grown on carbon fiber for dye-sensitized solar cells

Wenxi Guo; Chen Xu; Xue Wang; Sihong Wang; Caofeng Pan; Changjian Lin; Zhong Lin Wang

doi:10.1021/ja2120585

Rectangular bunched rutile TiO2 nanorod arrays grown on carbon fiber for dye-sensitized solar cells

J Am Chem Soc. 2012 Mar 7;134(9):4437-41. doi: 10.1021/ja2120585. Epub 2012 Feb 22.

Authors

Wenxi Guo¹, Chen Xu, Xue Wang, Sihong Wang, Caofeng Pan, Changjian Lin, Zhong Lin Wang

Affiliation

¹ School of Material Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, USA.

PMID: 22300521
DOI: 10.1021/ja2120585

Abstract

Because of their special application in photovoltaics, the growth of one-dimensional single-crystalline TiO(2) nanostructures on a flexible substrate is receiving intensive attention. Here we present a study of rectangular bunched TiO(2) nanorod (NR) arrays grown on carbon fibers (CFs) from titanium by a "dissolve and grow" method. After a corrosion process in a strong acid solution, every single nanorod is etched into a number of small nanowires. Tube-shaped dye-sensitized solar cells are fabricated by using etched TiO(2) NRs-coated CFs as the photoanode. An absolute energy conversion efficiency of 1.28% has been demonstrated under 100 mW cm(-2) AM 1.5 illumination. This work demonstrates an innovative method for growing bunched TiO(2) NRs on flexible substrates that can be applied in flexible devices for energy harvesting and storage.