Sharif Digital Repository

TiO2 thin films with mesoporous structure were deposited on quartz substrate by sol-gel dip coating. The structural, morphological and optical properties of the films were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), simultaneous thermal analysis (STA), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), atomic force microscopy (AFM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and UV/Vis transmittance spectroscopy. Crystallization of the anatase phase was initiated at 300°C. Its transformation to the rutile phase occurred at 700°C. Anatase and rutile crystallites initially sized 3.2 and 15.3nm, respectively. The anatase phase was under tension; but the rutile phase was... 

Pb(Zr 0.52Ti 0.48)O 3 (PZT) nanotubes with diameters of 80-100 nm and a wall thickness of 15-20 nm were prepared by sol-gel template technique and using multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) as sacrificial templates. The coating process of MWCNT with PZT precursor sol and removal of the carbon nanotubes by an interrupt heat treatment were discussed and studied by Raman spectroscopy. Simultaneous thermal analysis (STA) revealed that PZT nanotube crystallized at the low temperature of 410°C by the significantly low activation energy of crystallization of 103.7 kJ/mol. Moreover, based on the X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern and selected area electron diffraction pattern the crystal structure of... 

We decorated Zn-doped TiO2-nanoparticle-based photoanodes with carbon nanotube (CNT)-derived TiO2 nanotubes (TNs) to enhance the power conversion efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs). X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis verified that Zn ions, in the range of 0 to 1 at %, were successfully doped into the TiO2 lattice. Field-emission SEM and TEM images of the TNs, as derived from the sol–gel template-assisted route, revealed that a uniform TiO2 coating with a thickness of 60 to 120 nm was deposited on the surface of the CNT template through a noncovalent route. We observed that the cell efficiency improved from 6.80 for pure TiO2 to 7.52 for 0.75 at % Zn-doped TiO2...