Spin Coating Immobilisation of C-N-TiO2 Co-Doped Nano Catalyst on Glass and Application for Photocatalysis or as Electron Transporting Layer for Perovskite Solar Cells
Source abstract
Abstract
Producing active thin films coated on supports resolves many issues of powder-based photo catalysis and energy harvesting. In this study, thin films of C-N-TiO2 were prepared by dynamic spin coating of C-N-TiO2 sol-gel on glass support. The effect of spin speed and sol gel precursor to solvent volume ratio on the film thickness was investigated. The C-N-TiO2-coated glass was annealed at 350 °C at a ramping rate of 10 °C/min with a holding time of 2 hours under a continuous flow of dry N2. The C-N-TiO2 films were characterised by profilometry analysis, light microscopy (LM), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled with energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). The outcomes of this study proved that a spin coating technique followed by an annealing process to stabilise the layer could be used for immobilisation of the photo catalyst on glass. The exposure of C-N-TiO2 films to UV radiation induced photocatalytic decolouration of orange II (O.II) dye. The prepared C-N-TiO2 films showed a reasonable power conversion efficiency average (PCE of 9%) with respect to the reference device (15%). The study offers a feasible route for the engineering of C-N-TiO2 films applicable to wastewater remediation processes and energy harvesting in solar cell technologies.
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Research context
OpenAlex topics: Perovskite Materials and Applications · Advanced Photocatalysis Techniques · TiO2 Photocatalysis and Solar Cells
SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.
Affiliations
Environmental Nano Science (ENS) research group, Department of Chemistry, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town 7535, South Africa
Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town 7535, South Africa
CHOSE, Electronic Engineering Department University of Rome Tor Vergata, Via del Politecnico 1, 00133 Rome, Italy
LASE, National University of Science and Technology “MISiS”, Leninsky Ave. 6, Moscow 119049, Russia
Research Center for Advanced Surface Processing and Analysis by Vacuum Technologies (ReCAST), National Institute for Optoelectronics (INOE) 2000, 409 Atomistilor St., Magurele, 077125 Bucharest, Romania
Physical Materials Science and Composite Materials Centre, Research School of Chemistry & Applied Biomedical Sciences, Tomsk Polytechnic University, Lenin’s Avenue 30, 634050 Tomsk, Russia
Funding
NRF South Africa and Romanian Ministry of National Education · Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation in the framework of Increase Competitiveness Program of NUST ≪MISiS≫ · European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research Innovation Program under grant agreement graphene
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