Triblock copolymer-assisted construction of 20 nm-sized ytterbium-doped TiO2 hollow nanostructures for enhanced solar energy utilization efficiency

• DOI: 10.1007/s11426-014-5237-1
• Publication Date: 2015-03-09T01:09:32Z
• Authors: Lin Cheng; Xuefeng Xu; Yuyan Fang; Yan Li; Jiaxi Wang; Guojia Wan; Xueying Ge; Liangjie Yuan; Keli Zhang; Lei Liao; Quan Yuan
• Keywords: Ytterbium

Rare-earth doped titania single-crystalline hollow nanoparticles of 20 nm are constructed via a simple sol-gel process. Amphiphilic ABA tri-block copolymers played a key role in assisting the formation of hollow structure, for which a hollow nanostructure growth mechanism is proposed. By introducing rare earth into the synthesis process, the as-prepared nanoparticles exhibit near-infrared light absorption properties. Photo-decomposition efficiency of Orange II azo dye can be successfully evaluated when using Yb3+-doped TiO2 hollow nanoparticles as photocatalysts; it is more than two times higher than the pure TiO2 hollow nanoparticles. The hollow nanostructured Yb3+-doped TiO2 samples are exploited as photoanodes in N719-sensitized solar cells and prove able to improve the photoelectric conversion efficiency by measuring the solar cell parameters of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) under simulative sunlight.