Economically applicable Ti(2)O(3) decorated m-aminophenol-formaldehyde resin microspheres for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs)

Ragu Sasikumar; Palraj Ranganathan; Shen-Ming Chen; Pedaballi Sireesha; Tse-Wei Chen; Pitchaimani Veerakumar; Syang-Peng Rwei; Thavuduraj Kavitha

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2017.01.061

Economically applicable Ti(2)O(3) decorated m-aminophenol-formaldehyde resin microspheres for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs)

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2017 May 15:494:82-91. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2017.01.061. Epub 2017 Jan 19.

Authors

Ragu Sasikumar¹, Palraj Ranganathan², Shen-Ming Chen³, Pedaballi Sireesha², Tse-Wei Chen¹, Pitchaimani Veerakumar⁴, Syang-Peng Rwei⁵, Thavuduraj Kavitha⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, National Taipei University of Technology, No. 1, Section 3, Chung-Hsiao East Road, Taipei 106, Taiwan, ROC.
² Institute of Organic and Polymeric Materials, National Taipei University of Technology, No. 1, Section 3, Chung-Hsiao East Road, Taipei 106, Taiwan, ROC.
³ Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, National Taipei University of Technology, No. 1, Section 3, Chung-Hsiao East Road, Taipei 106, Taiwan, ROC. Electronic address: smchen78@ms15.hinet.net.
⁴ Institute of Atomic and Molecular Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei 10617, Taiwan, ROC.
⁵ Institute of Organic and Polymeric Materials, National Taipei University of Technology, No. 1, Section 3, Chung-Hsiao East Road, Taipei 106, Taiwan, ROC. Electronic address: f10714@ntut.edu.tw.
⁶ Department of Chemistry, Sri S. Ramasamy Naidu Memorial College, Sattur, Virudhunagar District, Tamil Nadu, India.

PMID: 28135631
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2017.01.061

Abstract

In this present study, we focus on economically applicable polymeric material as photo-anode for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Water droplets on grass like Ti₂O₃ decorated m-aminophenol-formaldehyde resin microspheres (mAPFR@Ti₂O₃) synthesized by surfactant-free and template-free hydrothermal method. The synthesized mAPFR@Ti₂O₃ material morphology was characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). From that results, it was found in uniform arrangements with excellent thermal stability. As we know from the literature we are the first to report the mechanism about mAPFR microspheres formations. Owing to the low temperature processing, cheap cost and easy preparation in this current study we propose to use mAPFR@Ti₂O₃ microspheres as an active material for the preparation of doped photo-anode in DSSCs exhibited the short-circuit photocurrent density (J_sc) of 18.14mAcm^-2, open circuit voltage (V_oc) of 0.70V, fill factor (FF) of 0.62, power conversion efficiency is 7.90% which is 84% greater than that of DSSCs with conventional TiO₂ electrode.

Keywords: DSSCs; Formaldehyde; Incident photon-to-current efficiency; Microspheres; TiO(2); m-Aminophenol.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't