Imperial College London
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DrThomasMacdonald

Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department of Chemistry

Visiting Reseacher
 
 
 
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Contact

 

t.macdonald

 
 
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Location

 

Molecular Sciences Research HubWhite City Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Canever:2017:10.3791/55309,
author = {Canever, N and Hughson, F and Macdonald, TJ and Nann, T},
doi = {10.3791/55309},
journal = {J Vis Exp},
title = {Electrospinning of Photocatalytic Electrodes for Dye-sensitized Solar Cells.},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.3791/55309},
year = {2017}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - This work demonstrates a protocol to fabricate a fiber-based photoanode for dye-sensitized solar cells, consisting of a light-scattering layer made of electrospun titanium dioxide nanofibers (TiO2-NFs) on top of a blocking layer made of commercially available titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO2-NPs). This is achieved by first electrospinning a solution of titanium (IV) butoxide, polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), and glacial acetic acid in ethanol to obtain composite PVP/TiO2 nanofibers. These are then calcined at 500 °C to remove the PVP and to obtain pure anatase-phase titania nanofibers. This material is characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and powder X-ray diffraction (XRD). The photoanode is prepared by first creating a blocking layer through the deposition of a TiO2-NPs/terpineol slurry on a fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) glass slide using doctor blading techniques. A subsequent thermal treatment is performed at 500 °C. Then, the light-scattering layer is formed by depositing a TiO2-NFs/terpineol slurry on the same slide, using the same technique, and calcinating again at 500 °C. The performance of the photoanode is tested by fabricating a dye-sensitized solar cell and measuring its efficiency through J-V curves under a range of incident light densities, from 0.25-1 Sun.
AU  - Canever,N
AU  - Hughson,F
AU  - Macdonald,TJ
AU  - Nann,T
DO  - 10.3791/55309
PY  - 2017///
TI  - Electrospinning of Photocatalytic Electrodes for Dye-sensitized Solar Cells.
T2  - J Vis Exp
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.3791/55309
UR  - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28715369
ER  -
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