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ISSN Online: 2379-1748

ISBN Flash Drive: 978-1-56700-518-9

5th Thermal and Fluids Engineering Conference (TFEC)
April, 5-8, 2020, New Orleans, LA, USA

PRODUCTION OF ANATASE TIO2 NANOCRYSTALS USING FREEZE-DRY PROCESS

Get access (open in a new tab) pages 593-602
DOI: 10.1615/TFEC2020.sol.031819

Resumo

TiO2 nanoparticles are often used as a photoanode material in dye-sensitized solar cells. Sintered together, the TiO2 particles are often conducted at 500°C, to provide porous TiO2 thin films. Anatase TiO2 nanoparticles with the dimensions of around 20-30 nm are routinely used to facilitate better electron transport and high dye-adsorption capacity in the film. Prior experiments on the solution synthesis of TiO2 suggested that dimethylformamide (DMF) plays a crucial role in the formation of DMF-containing amorphous TiO2 precursors in solution, adaptable for creating size-controlled TiO2 nanoparticles in the following high temperature process. It was observed that subsequent sintering process of the precursor at 500°C produced Anatase TiO2 nanoparticles with the sizes of around 20 nm. The purpose of this research is to discover a method of obtaining Anatase TiO2 semiconductor nanocrystals using low-temperature process without using a high temperature oven. The amorphous TiO2 precursors were prepared at 40°C using an aqueous TiCl4 solution as a Titanium compound and DMF as a structure directing agent. A new method involved the creation of the semiconductor nanoparticles through freeze-dry the resultant TiO2 antecedents in order to produce a crystalline powder. The size, shape and crystal phase of TiO2 particles were also characterized using a transmission electron microscope (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). It was found that Anatase nanoparticles formed with freeze-dry process of amorphous TiO2 precursors. This allowed us to produce crystalline TiO2 at a low temperature.