Synthesis of TiO2 nanorods with a microwave assisted solvothermal method and their application as dye-sensitized solar cells

Inthiswork, Titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanostructures have beensynthesized via amicrowave assisted solvothermalmethod using titanium tetraisopropoxide (TTIP),polyvinylpyrrolidone(PVP) and Ascorbic Acid (AA) in ethanol. The mole ratio ofPVP/AA was found to be critical in determining the morphology and crystal phaseof the final product. PVP/AA mole ratio varied from 1 up to 15 to obtain differentmorphologies of TiO2. The structural analysis by XRD diffraction confirmedformation of titanium dioxide. The Williamson-Hall (W-H) analysis was usedto study the individual contributionsofcrystallite sizes and lattice strain on thepeak broadening of the TiO2 nanoparticles.FTIR spectrum was used to estimatethe various functional groups present in the nanostructures. Scanning electronmicroscope (SEM) images demonstrate nanoparticle, short nanorod, and longnanorods for 5,10 and 15 mole ratio of PVP/AA respectively. TiO2 nanoparticlesand nanorodshave been used as photoelectrode in dye-synthesized solar cell(DSSCs) fabrication. The efficiencies of solar cells were calculated 3.23%and4.01% for nanoparticles and nanorods, respectively.