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Template-free scalable synthesis of TiO2 hollow nanoparticles for excellent photoelectrochemical applications

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Abstract

With the energy crisis and resource depletion nowadays, novel, highly performing, and cost-effective semiconductors are in urgent demand for efficiently harvesting solar energy for photoelectrochemical applications. Herein, this study presents low-cost anatase TiO2 hollow nanoparticles as prepared by a critical liquid-phase deposition (LPD) processing combined with a hydrothermal reaction and calcination processing, without involving any templates. The additional LPD processing not only makes the resulting samples more visible light responsive, but also results in hollowing the TiO2 nanoparticles (nanosheets vs. hollow nanoparticles). Importantly, commercial TiO2 powder is employed as the starting material to achieve the final synthesis of TiO2 hollow nanoparticles, making it scalable and cost-effective for production and applications. As a by-product, the fluoride, formed during the preparation process, is assumed to play a significant role in hollowing through chemically induced self-transformation and Ostwald ripening, in addition to enhancing the crystallinity. The beneficial structural evolution to the hollow nanoparticles enables the improvement of the photoelectrochemical performance through impressive inhibition of the recombination of the photoelectrons and holes, which is well evidenced by I ph and EIS (Nyquist plot), as well as by I–V curve and electron lifetime evaluations as for the assembled DSSCs with the prepared TiO2 hollow nanoparticles under simulated sunlight illumination (50 mW/cm2).

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Acknowledgements

The authors greatly acknowledge the Open Research Fund of Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of Biomass Energy and Materials (JSBEM201608), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51702050), the Construction Project from Foshan Engineering Technique Research Center (2014GA000355), Construction Project from Research Platform of Universities in Foshan City (2014AG10009), and High-Level Talent Start-Up Research Projects in Foshan University (gg040948, Gg040918).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Materials Science and Energy Engineering, Foshan University, Foshan, 528000, Guangdong, China

    Yuyuan Zhang, Huawen Hu, Menglei Chang, Hongyang Wei, Dongchu Chen & Min Zhang

  2. Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversion, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510640, Guangdong, China

    Liangpeng Wu & Xinjun Li

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  1. Yuyuan Zhang
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  2. Huawen Hu
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  3. Menglei Chang
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  4. Hongyang Wei
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  5. Dongchu Chen
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  6. Min Zhang
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Correspondence to Huawen Hu or Xinjun Li.

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Zhang, Y., Hu, H., Chang, M. et al. Template-free scalable synthesis of TiO2 hollow nanoparticles for excellent photoelectrochemical applications. J Mater Sci 53, 2102–2114 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-017-1642-0

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