Synthesis and characterization of titania nanotube arrays by electrochemical method for dye sensitized solar cells

TiO2 is known as one of the excellent and demanded materials for its wide applications. In this paper, the growth of TiO2 nanotube arrays by using simple and inexpensive electrochemical anodizing of a titanium foil is presented. The vertically oriented TiO2 nanotube arrays were prepared in electrolyte solution of 3 wt % HF (40%) and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) at constant DC voltage of 30 V for 17h. The photoluminescence, crystallinity and surface morphology of prepared nanotube arrays were studied by Spectrometer, XRD and FE-SEM. Room temperature photoluminescence measurement showed a sharp peak at 383 nm corresponding to the band gap energy (3.2 eV) of bulk TiO2 anatase phase. However, humps at 412 nm and 471 nm are attributed to the free excitations where as at 521 is attributed to the formation of oxygen vacancy at the surface of titania nanotube arrays. XRD measurement revealed the anatase phase of TiO2 nanotube arrays and found good matching with others reported works. FESEM measurement showed well aligned formation of nanotube arrays of ~80 nm of inner diameter and ~20 nm of wall thickness of TiO2 nanotubes.