Cost Effective Solvothermal Method to Synthesize Zn-Doped TiO<sub>2</sub> Nanomaterials for Photovoltaic and Photocatalytic Degradation Applications
Titanium dioxide (TiO<sub>2</sub>) is a commonly used wide bandgap semiconductor material for energy and environmental applications. Although it is a promising candidate for photovoltaic and photocatalytic applications, its overall performance is still limited due to low mobility of poro...
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2021-05-01
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| author | Tharmakularasa Rajaramanan Sivagowri Shanmugaratnam Vijayakumar Gurunanthanan Shivatharsiny Yohi Dhayalan Velauthapillai Punniamoorthy Ravirajan Meena Senthilnanthanan |
| author_facet | Tharmakularasa Rajaramanan Sivagowri Shanmugaratnam Vijayakumar Gurunanthanan Shivatharsiny Yohi Dhayalan Velauthapillai Punniamoorthy Ravirajan Meena Senthilnanthanan |
| author_sort | Tharmakularasa Rajaramanan |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Titanium dioxide (TiO<sub>2</sub>) is a commonly used wide bandgap semiconductor material for energy and environmental applications. Although it is a promising candidate for photovoltaic and photocatalytic applications, its overall performance is still limited due to low mobility of porous TiO<sub>2</sub> and its limited spectral response. This limitation can be overcome by several ways, one of which is doping that could be used to improve the light harvesting properties of TiO<sub>2</sub> by tuning its bandgap. TiO<sub>2</sub> doped with elements, such as alkali-earth metals, transition metals, rare-earth elements, and nonmetals, were found to improve its performance in the photovoltaic and photocatalytic applications. Among the doped TiO<sub>2</sub> nanomaterials, transition metal doped TiO<sub>2</sub> nanomaterials perform efficiently by suppressing the relaxation and recombination of charge carriers and improving the absorption of light in the visible region. This work reports the possibility of enhancing the performance of TiO<sub>2</sub> towards Dye Sensitised Solar Cells (DSSCs) and photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue (MB) by employing Zn doping on TiO<sub>2</sub> nanomaterials. Zn doping was carried out by varying the mole percentage of Zn on TiO<sub>2</sub> by a facile solvothermal method and the synthesized nanomaterials were characterised. The XRD (X-Ray Diffraction) studies confirmed the presence of anatase phase of TiO<sub>2</sub> in the synthesized nanomaterials, unaffected by Zn doping. The UV-Visible spectrum of Zn-doped TiO<sub>2</sub> showed a red shift which could be attributed to the reduced bandgap resulted by Zn doping. Significant enhancement in Power Conversion Efficiency (PCE) was observed with 1.0 mol% Zn-doped TiO<sub>2</sub> based DSSC, which was 35% greater than that of the control device. In addition, it showed complete degradation of MB within 3 h of light illumination and rate constant of <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mn>1.5466</mn><mo>×</mo><msup><mrow><mn>10</mn></mrow><mrow><mo>−</mo><mn>4</mn></mrow></msup><msup><mi>s</mi><mrow><mo>−</mo><mn>1</mn></mrow></msup></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> resembling zeroth order reaction. These improvements are attributed to the reduced bandgap energy and the reduced charge recombination by Zn doping on TiO<sub>2</sub>. |
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| spelling | doaj.art-b4504385ab17422aa601c1526204dd952023-11-21T22:00:24ZengMDPI AGCatalysts2073-43442021-05-0111669010.3390/catal11060690Cost Effective Solvothermal Method to Synthesize Zn-Doped TiO<sub>2</sub> Nanomaterials for Photovoltaic and Photocatalytic Degradation ApplicationsTharmakularasa Rajaramanan0Sivagowri Shanmugaratnam1Vijayakumar Gurunanthanan2Shivatharsiny Yohi3Dhayalan Velauthapillai4Punniamoorthy Ravirajan5Meena Senthilnanthanan6Clean Energy Research Laboratory (CERL), Department of Physics, University of Jaffna, Jaffna 40000, Sri LankaClean Energy Research Laboratory (CERL), Department of Physics, University of Jaffna, Jaffna 40000, Sri LankaClean Energy Research Laboratory (CERL), Department of Physics, University of Jaffna, Jaffna 40000, Sri LankaDepartment of Chemistry, University of Jaffna, Jaffna 40000, Sri LankaFaculty of Engineering, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, 5020 Bergen, NorwayClean Energy Research Laboratory (CERL), Department of Physics, University of Jaffna, Jaffna 40000, Sri LankaDepartment of Chemistry, University of Jaffna, Jaffna 40000, Sri LankaTitanium dioxide (TiO<sub>2</sub>) is a commonly used wide bandgap semiconductor material for energy and environmental applications. Although it is a promising candidate for photovoltaic and photocatalytic applications, its overall performance is still limited due to low mobility of porous TiO<sub>2</sub> and its limited spectral response. This limitation can be overcome by several ways, one of which is doping that could be used to improve the light harvesting properties of TiO<sub>2</sub> by tuning its bandgap. TiO<sub>2</sub> doped with elements, such as alkali-earth metals, transition metals, rare-earth elements, and nonmetals, were found to improve its performance in the photovoltaic and photocatalytic applications. Among the doped TiO<sub>2</sub> nanomaterials, transition metal doped TiO<sub>2</sub> nanomaterials perform efficiently by suppressing the relaxation and recombination of charge carriers and improving the absorption of light in the visible region. This work reports the possibility of enhancing the performance of TiO<sub>2</sub> towards Dye Sensitised Solar Cells (DSSCs) and photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue (MB) by employing Zn doping on TiO<sub>2</sub> nanomaterials. Zn doping was carried out by varying the mole percentage of Zn on TiO<sub>2</sub> by a facile solvothermal method and the synthesized nanomaterials were characterised. The XRD (X-Ray Diffraction) studies confirmed the presence of anatase phase of TiO<sub>2</sub> in the synthesized nanomaterials, unaffected by Zn doping. The UV-Visible spectrum of Zn-doped TiO<sub>2</sub> showed a red shift which could be attributed to the reduced bandgap resulted by Zn doping. Significant enhancement in Power Conversion Efficiency (PCE) was observed with 1.0 mol% Zn-doped TiO<sub>2</sub> based DSSC, which was 35% greater than that of the control device. In addition, it showed complete degradation of MB within 3 h of light illumination and rate constant of <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mn>1.5466</mn><mo>×</mo><msup><mrow><mn>10</mn></mrow><mrow><mo>−</mo><mn>4</mn></mrow></msup><msup><mi>s</mi><mrow><mo>−</mo><mn>1</mn></mrow></msup></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> resembling zeroth order reaction. These improvements are attributed to the reduced bandgap energy and the reduced charge recombination by Zn doping on TiO<sub>2</sub>.https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4344/11/6/690doped TiO<sub>2</sub>zincsolvothermal methodDSSCsMB |
| spellingShingle | Tharmakularasa Rajaramanan Sivagowri Shanmugaratnam Vijayakumar Gurunanthanan Shivatharsiny Yohi Dhayalan Velauthapillai Punniamoorthy Ravirajan Meena Senthilnanthanan Cost Effective Solvothermal Method to Synthesize Zn-Doped TiO<sub>2</sub> Nanomaterials for Photovoltaic and Photocatalytic Degradation Applications Catalysts doped TiO<sub>2</sub> zinc solvothermal method DSSCs MB |
| title | Cost Effective Solvothermal Method to Synthesize Zn-Doped TiO<sub>2</sub> Nanomaterials for Photovoltaic and Photocatalytic Degradation Applications |
| title_full | Cost Effective Solvothermal Method to Synthesize Zn-Doped TiO<sub>2</sub> Nanomaterials for Photovoltaic and Photocatalytic Degradation Applications |
| title_fullStr | Cost Effective Solvothermal Method to Synthesize Zn-Doped TiO<sub>2</sub> Nanomaterials for Photovoltaic and Photocatalytic Degradation Applications |
| title_full_unstemmed | Cost Effective Solvothermal Method to Synthesize Zn-Doped TiO<sub>2</sub> Nanomaterials for Photovoltaic and Photocatalytic Degradation Applications |
| title_short | Cost Effective Solvothermal Method to Synthesize Zn-Doped TiO<sub>2</sub> Nanomaterials for Photovoltaic and Photocatalytic Degradation Applications |
| title_sort | cost effective solvothermal method to synthesize zn doped tio sub 2 sub nanomaterials for photovoltaic and photocatalytic degradation applications |
| topic | doped TiO<sub>2</sub> zinc solvothermal method DSSCs MB |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4344/11/6/690 |
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