1. Engineered core-shell nanofibers for electron transport study in dye-sensitized solar cells
- Author
-
P. Coulibaly, Yerkin Shabdan, Nurxat Nuraje, A. Ronasi, and M. Moniruddin
- Subjects
Nanocomposite ,Materials science ,Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy ,General Physics and Astronomy ,Nanotechnology ,02 engineering and technology ,Carbon nanotube ,010402 general chemistry ,021001 nanoscience & nanotechnology ,01 natural sciences ,Electrospinning ,lcsh:QC1-999 ,0104 chemical sciences ,law.invention ,Dye-sensitized solar cell ,Chemical engineering ,X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy ,law ,Nanofiber ,0210 nano-technology ,Short circuit ,lcsh:Physics - Abstract
In this study, a unique approach was developed to synthesize 1-D core-shell nanofibers of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and TiO2 using combination of coaxial electrospinning and sol-gel technique. Diameters of the fabricated core-shell single wall carbon nanotube-TiO2 (SWCNT-TiO2) and multi wall carbon nanotube-TiO2 (MWCNT-TiO2) nano-composite fibers were between 50-100nm. Energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and X-ray photon spectroscopy (XPS) were applied to confirm encapsulation of carbon nanotube (CNT) in the core-shell structure. Electron transport properties of both SWCNT-TiO2 and MWCNT-TiO2 in the Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) were studied for the first time. It was found that SWCNT-TiO2 based DSSC provided higher short circuit current relative to MWCNT-TiO2, which was explained by I-V and bode plots. These findings were further illustrated by semi-conductive properties of SWCNT.
- Published
- 2017