• Clean Technology
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.306-313
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• 2014

Nanoporous $TiO_2$ films are commonly used as working electrodes in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). So far, there have been attempts to synthesize films with various $TiO_2$ nanostructures to increase the power-conversion efficiency. In this work, vertically aligned rutile $TiO_2$ nanorods were grown on fluorinated tin oxide (FTO) glass by hydrothermal synthesis, followed by deposition of an anatase $TiO_2$ film. This new method of anatase $TiO_2$ growth avoided the use of a seed layer that is usually required in hydrothermal synthesis of $TiO_2$ electrodes. The dense anatase $TiO_2$ layer was designed to behave as the electron-generating layer, while the less dense rutile nanorods acted as electron-transfer pathwaysto the FTO glass. In order to facilitate the electron transfer, the rutile phase nanorods were treated with a $TiCl_4$ solution so that the nanorods were coated with the anatase $TiO_2$ film after heat treatment. Compared to the electrode consisting of only rutile $TiO_2$, the power-conversion efficiency of the rutile-anatase hybrid $TiO_2$ electrode was found to be much higher. The total thickness of the rutile-anatase hybrid $TiO_2$ structures were around $4.5-5.0{\mu}m$, and the highest power efficiency of the cell assembled with the structured $TiO_2$ electrode was around 3.94%.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.7 no.6
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• pp.1078-1086
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• 1996

The peroxo-polytungstic acid was formed by the direct reaction of tungsten powder with the hydrogen peroxide solution. Peroxo-polytungstic powder were prepared by rotary evaporator using the fabricated on to ITO coated glass as substrate by dip-coating method using $2g/10mL(W-IPA/H_2O)$ sol solution. A substrate was dipped into the sol solution and after a meniscus had settled, the substrate was withdrawn at a constant rate of the 3mm/sec. Thicker layer could be built up by repeated dipping/post-treatment 15 times cycles. The layers dried at the temperature of $65{\sim}70^{\circ}C$ during the withdrawn process, and then tungsten oxides thin film was formed by final heating treatment at the temperature of $230{\sim}240^{\circ}C$ for 30min. A linear rotation between the thickness of thin film and the number of dipping/post-treatment cycles for tungsten oxides thin films made by dip-coating was found. The thickness of thin film had $60{\AA}$ after one dipping. From the patterns of XRD, the structure of tungsten oxides thin film identified as amorphous one and from the photographs of SEM, the defects and the moderate cracks were observed on the tungsten oxides thin film, but the homogeneous surface of thin films were mostly appeared. The electrochemical characteristic of the $ITO/WO_3$ thin film electrode were confirmed by the cyclic voltammetry and the cathodic Tafel polaization method. The coloring bleaching processes were clearly repeated up to several hundreds cycles by multiple cyclic voltammetry, but the dissolved phenomenon of thin film revealed in $H_2SO_4$ solution was observed due to the decrease of the current densities. The diffusion coefficient was calculated from irreversible Randles-Sevick equation from the data obtained by the cyclic voltammetry with various scan rates.