Highly Porous and Novel 1D-TiO2 Nanoarchitecture with Light Harvesting Morphology for Photovoltaic Applications

A novel photoanode architecture revamped by dandelion-like TiO2 (DS) structures as light harvesting ingredients over the vertically oriented TiO2 nanowire (NW) bunches has been prepared on FTO glass without any seed layer through a single-step solvothermal process. High Resolution SEM observations showed that the synthesized photoanode consists of dandelion-like structures over vertically oriented nanowires with high surface porosity. Both the nanowire and dandelion structures possess rutile TiO2 crystal phase as confirmed with XRD analysis which also revealed that the nanoarchitecture is single crystalline, an essential condition for faster electron transport at the interfaces. The enhanced light harvesting capabilities and bandgap were examined using UV-DRS. Field dependent dark and photo conductivity measurements were performed to observe the response of the material to the visible spectrum. The proposed photoanode incorporating 1D-TiO2 electron transporters provides a novel configuration for improved light harvesting application.