Nanoparticles and nanostructures could be applicable to photoelectrochemical devices, such as, solar cells and photoelectrochromic devices, and so on. Dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have attracted considerable attention after a breakthrough, the introduction of anode electrode composed of nanoporous and interconnected TiO₂ nanoparticles as an electron conductor. In this presentation, we will report design and synthesis of nanotubes and nanorods for the application in DSSC by various techniques including co-sputtering.
In addition, for the high conversion efficiency of DSSCs based on the glass-based cells, followed by high temperature sintering process, the insufficient electron diffusion coefficient in traditional electrodes composed of nano-sized TiO₂ particles (e.g. several orders of magnitude smaller than those in bulk single crystal TiO₂) should be recovered due to the limitation of the photon-to-electricity conversion efficiency. This point has promoted research toward photoanode comprised of various shaped nanoporous materials, in particular, nanotubes and nanorods. Nanorod based TiO₂ films were prepared using chemical-based synthesis based on oriented attachment. Synthesis and characteristics of anatase TiO₂ nanoparticle and nanorod will be presented. Furthermore, properties of electron transport and charge recombination of the electrons in the nanorod based TiO₂ film will be also discussed and compared with other nanostrucutres in the conference.