Nitrogen and argon treatment of titanium dioxide nanowire arrays

Abstract

TiO2 nanoparticle films are important electron transport layers (ETLs) in photovoltaics such as dye-sensitised, perovskite and polymer hetero-junction solar cells. These films, however, have significant electron trap-sites as a result of the large density of oxygen vacancies present in nano-sized TiO2. These trap-sites cause electron-hole recombination and ultimately lower photon-to-current conversion efficiency of the underlying cell during operation. Doping the TiO2 lattice with low atomic number elements such as nitrogen is a proven method to overcoming the charge transport inefficiency of TiO2 ETLs; another is the use of one-dimensional (1D) nanowires (NWs), instead of nanoparticles.