AUTHOR=Meng Lijian , Chen Hong , Li Can , dos Santos Manuel Pereira 

TITLE=Growth of the [110] Oriented TiO2 Nanorods on ITO Substrates by Sputtering Technique for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Materials

VOLUME=1

YEAR=2014

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/materials/articles/10.3389/fmats.2014.00014

DOI=10.3389/fmats.2014.00014

ISSN=2296-8016

ABSTRACT=<p>TiO<sub>2</sub> films have been deposited on ITO substrates by DC reactive magnetron sputtering technique. It has been found that the sputtering pressure is a very important parameter for the structure of the deposited TiO<sub>2</sub> films. When the pressure is lower than 1 Pa, the deposited film has a dense structure and shows a preferred orientation along the [101] direction. However, the nanorod structure has been obtained as the sputtering pressure is higher than 1 Pa. These nanorod structure TiO<sub>2</sub> films show a preferred orientation along the [110] direction. The phases of the deposited TiO<sub>2</sub> films have been characterized by the x-ray diffraction and the Raman scattering measurements. All the films show an anatase phase and no other phase has been observed. The results of the scanning electron microscope show that these TiO<sub>2</sub> nanorods are perpendicular to the ITO substrate. The TEM measurement shows that the nanorods have a very rough surface. The dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have been assembled using these TiO<sub>2</sub> nanorod films prepared at different sputtering pressures as photoelectrode. And the effect of the sputtering pressure on the properties of the photoelectric conversion of the DSSCs has been studied.</p>