Mesoporous titania photoanode with sub-micron order thickness: Toward an efficient photoanode for the electricity generating window

Dr. Norihiro Suzuki, ICYS-Sengen, NIMS

Mesoporous titania photoanode with large mesopores (22 nm) was successively synthesized by surfactant-assisted sol-gel method. The micelles of diblock-copolymer (PS-b-PEO) used as a soft-template was initially well-ordered in as-prepared film and the ordering was retained even after the template removal by calcination. The framework was continuous and crystallized to anatase phase. Because of the large porosity and thin film thickness, obtained mesoporous photoanode was highly transparent. Large porosity also brought high surface area (around 100 m²/cm³), which facilitate the adsorption much dyes. Thanks to this, the conversion efficiency of DSC using the mesoporous titania photoanode and rare-metal free dye (MK-2) reached 2.6 % even though the film thickness of mesoporous layer was sub-micron order (around 445 nm), demonstrating that the mesoporous photoanode synthesized in this study would be act as an efficient transparent electrode for the electricity generating window. In this presentation, I would like to also mention the future tasks should be tackled.