Simple Hydrothermal Preparation and Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells Efficiency of Nanotubes-Nanoparticles from Thai Leucoexene Mineral

Abstract

Titanate and TiO2 have been widely used for energy and environment applications such as a semiconductor in dye-sensitized solar cell(DSSCs), water treatment materials, catalysts, gas sensors, and so on. In this study, titanate nanotubes were synthesized via hydrothermal method from Leucoxene in 10M NaOH at 105 oC for 24 h. The shape, size,

crystalline structures and specific surface areas of the prepared nanotubes were characterized by Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET)

surface area measurements. The prepared titanate nanotubes had an average outer diameter of around 8–10 nm and the inner diameter around 3–4 nm, and particles size around 20-50 nm. The BET surface area and pore volume of the prepared

titanate nanotubes were about 144.79 m2/g and 1.0335 cm3/g, respectively. This preparation method provides a simple route to fabricate nanotubes from low-cost material using autoclave unit (Thai made). The prepared nanotubes could be applied in

dye-sensitized solar cell, which had the solar conversion efficiency up to 3.16% when combined commercial nanoparticles TiO2 (P25) with the prepared titanate nanotubes from Leucoxene mineral.