Preparation and characterization of TiO2 anode film with hierarchical structure by photo-induced polymerization method

The TiO2 photoanode film with hierarchical structure which consists of porous structure and spinodal phase separation structure with macroporous continuous skeleton was fabricated by photopolymerization induced phase separation method. The influence of the different photomonomers, different coating layers and different heat treatment temperatures on the structure and photoelectric property of TiO2 film has been investigated and the possible mechanism was proposed. The performances of the TiO2 anode film were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and I–V test. The results indicated that, in contrast with the TiO2 anode film with single structure, the as-prepared TiO2 anode film with hierarchical structure showed higher photoelectric conversion efficiency which is 0.272 %. Even though the photoelectric conversion efficiency is not very high, the strategy presented in the paper should be valuable and it still provides the ideas for the new structure and new preparation method on photoanode film of dye-sensitized solar cells, meanwhile, it lays the foundation for designing the solar cells with high photoelectric conversion efficiency.