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Maziyar Marandi

Maziyar Marandi

Academic rank: Professor
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4882-2033
Education: PhD.
ScopusId: 55650454400
HIndex:
Faculty: Science
Address: Arak University
Phone:

Research

Title
Synthesis of randomly directed inclined TiO2 nanorods on the nanocrystalline TiO2 layers and their optimized application in dye sensitized solar cells
Type
JournalPaper
Keywords
TiO2 nanorods; Over-growth; Dye sensitized solar cells; Scattering layer
Year
2017
Journal Journal of Alloys and Compounds
DOI
Researchers Maziyar Marandi ، Zahra Godarzi ، Leila Moradi

Abstract

In this research TiO2 nanocrystals of 20 nm size were synthesized through a hydrothermal method. These nanocrystals were deposited on FTO glass substrates with 6 mm thickness. A layer of TiO2 nanorods were over-grown on this nanocrystalline sub-layer by another hydrothermal process. The inclined TiO2 nanorods were well-formed and randomly directed on the top of the TiO2 nanocrystals layer. The length and diameter of the nanorods and corresponding thickness of this over-layer was controlled by the growth time. This bi-layer structure was applied as the photoanode of the dye sensitized solar cells (DSCs). The nanocrystalline TiO2 sub-layer could create enough dye adsorption and acceptable sensitization. Besides, the nanorods over-layer could increase the light scattering and light travelling distance within the photoanode. These two parameters resulted in an increased light absorption and energy conversion efficiency. A maximum efficiency of 6.2% was achieved for the optimized cell with bi-layer photoanode with over-grown nanorods in 20 h. This efficiency was increased about 47% compared to that of the DSC with just nanocrystalline photoelectrode. Final improvements were carried out on the thickness of nanocrystalline TiO2 sub-layer and its post-treatment before the nanorods growth. The energy conversion efficiency was increased to 7.5% due to the application of these modifications.