Abstract
Carbon-coated titania nanostructures have been prepared for applications of methylene blue photodecomposition and dye-sensitized solar cells. The carbon-coated titania nanoparticles are synthesized by nonaqueous sol-gel route using sucrose as a carbon source. The structure and composition can be controlled by changing the synthetic conditions and pyrolysis temperature. The thus prepared carbon-coated titania nanoparticles can decompose methylene blue under UV irradiation with much higher rates than commercial P25 titania. When being used as active layer materials, the resulting dye-sensitized solar cells exhibit higher conversion efficiency than the cells using commercial ST-21 titania. Furthermore, the same synthesis strategy can be applied to prepare titania nanostructures by seeding growth. With unique three-dimensional morphology, the titania nanostructures are incorporated in dye-sensitized solar cells as scattering layer materials to enhance the diffusion efficiency of electrolyte and the conversion efficiency of the cell.