Abstract:
As a preliminary drive to eventually develop dye-sensitized solar cell
(DSSC)-powered gas sensors, many oxide-based systems have been
explored to fabricate sensors that can show response at room temperature for any analyte gas. As an outcome of recent work in this endeavor,
a composite nanorod of anatase TiO2 with Na0.23TiO2 is found to exhibit
both photovoltaic performance and gas sensing at room temperature as
demonstrated here. An interesting morphology change along with a phase
change from nanoparticle to nanorod is observed during the hydrothermal
synthesis of anatase TiO2 nanoparticles with sodium hydroxide under
a highly basic condition. In order to understand the effect of the minor
phase Na0.23TiO2 on the inherent properties of anatase TiO2, the application of nanorod composite in two unique potential application areas, DSSC
and acetone sensings is investigated. The composite material exhibits an
enhanced efficiency of 7.85% for a DSSC. Surprisingly, a resistive sensor
fabricated with the synthesized composite material exhibits room temperature p-type sensing behavior toward different concentrations of acetone
(10, 5, 3, 2, and 1 ppm) with high selectivity.
