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Tuning Anatase Surface Reactivity toward Carboxylic Acid Anchor Groups.
- Source :
-
Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids [Langmuir] 2017 Dec 12; Vol. 33 (49), pp. 13913-13922. Date of Electronic Publication: 2017 Nov 27. - Publication Year :
- 2017
-
Abstract
- The effect of different post-treatments on TiO <subscript>2</subscript> anatase surface reactivity was investigated in order to obtain the best techniques for enhancing anatase performance in diverse applications, e.g., in photocatalysis and especially as photoelectrodes for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Different post-treatments of compact anodic anatase TiO <subscript>2</subscript> were compared, including O <subscript>2</subscript> plasma, UV irradiation, immersion in H <subscript>2</subscript> O <subscript>2</subscript> , vapor thermal treatment, and post-anodization, evaluating the increase of the amount of OH reactive groups on the surface and removal of surface contamination. In XPS spectra, the increase of OH groups is evident by the O 1s peak at higher binding energy. ToF-SIMS principal component analysis demonstrated that treatments performed in aqueous media led to a cleaner surface, with substantial removal of electrolyte residues. Stearic acid and the organic dye N719 were adsorbed to the differently post-treated anatase, and adsorption was evaluated by contact angle and dye desorption measurements. A higher loading with molecules containing carboxylic acid functionalities was confirmed by both techniques on the treated samples. The post-treatments that presented the highest amounts of dye were used to prepare photoelectrodes, and these were tested in DSSCs where the efficiency values doubled in comparison with the non-post-treated electrode.
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 1520-5827
- Volume :
- 33
- Issue :
- 49
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 29140709
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.langmuir.7b03044