Sharif Digital Repository

In this work, we report on fabrication and characterization of dye-sensitized solar cells based on TiO2 nanotube/nanoparticle (NT/NP) composite electrodes. TiO2 nanotubes were prepared by anodization of Ti foil in an organic electrolyte. The nanotubes were chemically separated from the foil, ground and added to a TiO2 nanoparticle paste, from which composite NT/NP electrodes were fabricated. In the composite TiO2 films the nanotubes existed in bundles with a length of a few micrometres. By optimizing the amount of NT in the paste, dye-sensitized solar cells with an efficiency of 5.6% were obtained, a 10% improvement in comparison to solar cells with pure NP electrodes. By increasing the... 

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) with nanotubular TiO2 electrodes of varying thicknesses are compared to DSCs based on conventional nanoparticulate electrodes. Despite the higher degree of order in one-dimensional nanotubular electrodes, electron transport times and diffusion coefficients, determined under short-circuit conditions, are comparable to those of nanoparticulate electrodes. The quasi-Fermi level, however, is much lower in the nanotubes, suggesting a lower concentration of conduction band electrons. This provides evidence for a much higher diffusion coefficient for conduction band electrons in nanotubes than in nanoparticulate films. The electron lifetime and the diffusion length... 

In this study, we present fabrication and characterization of a gas ionization sensor based on high aspect ratio one-dimensional CuO nanowires as the field enhancing medium. Self-organized arrays of CuO nanowires have been synthesized based on a low-cost thermal oxidation method and integrated into a gas ionization sensor (GIS). The self-organized arrays of CuO nanowires have been employed to detect the identity of several gas species such as He, Ar and CO at ambient temperature and pressure. The sharp nanoscale size of CuO tips provide very high electric fields at moderate voltages (less than 100 V) and provoke the breakdown of different gases. The reduced breakdown current of the metal... 

Cu2O is an attractive material in terms of semiconducting properties and is considered a leading candidate in all-oxide photovoltaics. Electrochemical analysis of Cu2O, including Mott-Schottky (MS) and impedance spectroscopy (IS), provides a wealth of data on charge carriers, Fermi level and interface properties. MS and IS are usually measured in aqueous solutions. However, Cu2O is easily reduced or oxidized to Cu or CuO in aqueous solutions, the layer peels off after the analysis and there is a small voltage window for the tests. In some cases, an anti-corrosive n-type barrier layer is employed on top of the bare Cu2O electrode to make the measurement possible, which could result in... 

A comparative study has been made of hybrid solar cells based on poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and different nano-structures of TiO2. Electrospinning, which is a low cost production method for large area nanofibrous films, was employed to fabricate TiO2 nanofibers and spin coating method was employed to fabricate organic-inorganic hybrid solar cells based on P3HT and TiO2 nanostructures. The performance of the hybrid solar cells was analyzed for four density levels of the TiO2 nanostructure. It was found that higher densities of TiO2 leads to more interface area and generates excitons, so that the power conversion efficiency increases to... 

In this work, a comparative study of hybrid solar cells based on P3HT and TiO2 nanofibers was accomplished. Electrospinning, a low cost production method for large area nanofibrous films, was employed to fabricate the organic-inorganic hybrid solar cells based on poly (3-hexylthiophene) and TiO2 nanofibers. The performance of the hybrid solar cells was analyzed for four density levels of TiO2 nanofibers which resulted in the average power conversion efficiency of about 0.0134% under AM 1.5 simulated illuminations (100 mWcm-2). It is found that the higher densities of TiO2 lead to more interface area and generating exciton, so the power conversion efficiency will be increased till the active... 

We have investigated the influence of perovskite morphology on slow and fast charge transport in the perovskite solar cells. Solar cells with different perovskite cuboid sizes (50-300 nm) have been fabricated using various methylammonium iodide concentrations. Both the low-frequency capacitance and hysteresis are maximum for the cell with the largest perovskite grains (300 nm). The low-frequency capacitance is about three orders of magnitude greater than the intermediate frequency capacitance, indicating the great role of ions on the slow responses and hysteresis. The measurement of open-circuit voltage decay indicates that for the large grains of 300 nm up to 70% of Voc remains across the... 

Despite the wide application ranges of TiO2, the precise explanation of the charge transport dynamic through a mixed crystal phase of this semiconductor has remained elusive. Here, in this research, mixed-phase TiO2 nanotube arrays (TNTAs) consisting of anatase and 0-15% rutile phases has been formed through various annealing processes and employed as a photoelectrode of a photovoltaic cell. Wide ranges of optoelectronic experiments have been employed to explore the band alignment position, as well as the depth and density of trap states in TNTAs. Short circuit potential, as well as open circuit potential measurements specified that the band alignment of more than 0.2 eV exists between the... 

Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) can harvest mechanical energy through coupling triboelectric effect and electrostatic induction. Typically, TENGs consist of organic materials, however on account of the potentially wide range of applications of TENGs as the self-powered portable/wearable electronics, biomedical devices, and sensors; semiconductor metal oxide materials can be promising candidates to be incorporating in TENG structure. Here, flexible TENG based on self-organized TiO2 nanotube arrays (TNTAs) is fabricated via anodization method. The introduced flexible large area nanotubular electrode is employed as the moving electrode in contact with Kapton film in vertical contact... 

SnO2-CuO is one the most promising systems for detection of detrimental H2S gas. Although previous experimental research has suggested a sulfidation reaction to explain selectivity toward H2S, little is known about the origin of change of electrical response of this system by changing the H2S gas concentration. In this study the relation between sensing response of continuous SnO2-CuO bilayer thin film and H2S gas concentration is computed based on changeability of chemical composition of covellite CuxS. For this purpose, chemical activity of sulfur as a function of atomic fraction in covellite copper sulfide is estimated using Gibbs energies of formation and chemical thermodynamics. By... 

Resistive sensors composed of SnO2 and CuO, are known to be highly efficient in detection of detrimental H2S gas in terms of sensitivity, selectivity and speed. Recently, dependency of electrical response of the sensor toward H2S gas concentration has been related to the selective mechanism (formation of CuS) by a theoretical model. Another important factor in design of gas sensors is the working temperature which so far has not been explicitly explained for H2S sensing process of SnO2-CuO system. In present study, origin of this temperature for SnO2-CuO thin bilayer based on the selective mechanism has been theoretically interpreted. For this purpose, Poisson, Laplace and continuity... 

Metal-oxide gas sensors are widely used for detection of detrimental H2S gas. Among them, SnO2-CuO system has been proved to be an excellent candidate. The previous theoretical 2D thin bilayer model was able to explain some aspects of H2S sensing performance of this promising system. However, experimental researches have indicated that response values for this system are very diverse and various SnO2-CuO multicomponent heterostructures such as rods, wires and particles have much higher response than their thin bilayer counterparts. Understanding the reason behind this differences would help fabrication of optimized sensor element. However, the previous model cannot address this issue mainly... 

Gas sensors have been fabricated based on field ionization from titanium oxide nanotubes grown on titanium foil. Ordered nanaotube arrays of titanium oxides were grown by the anodization method. We measured breakdown voltages and discharge currents of the device for various gases. Our gas ionization sensors (GIS) presented good sensitivity, selectivity, and short response time. The GISs based on TiO2 nanotube arrays showed lower breakdown voltage, higher discharge current, and good selectivity. An excellent response observed for Ar compared to other gases. Besides, by introducing 2 % CO and 4 % H2 to N2 flow gas, the amount of breakdown voltage shifts about 20 and 70 volts to the lower... 

This paper investigates the relation between information technology (IT) and the change of business operations. We evaluate the geographical demand of companies for customer service interactions. The structure is a separate selection model in which districts play the role of distinguished products. The approximated demand structure is used to evaluate the results of IT on customer size, place selection, and cost preserving. The results verify the higher cost vulnerability of IT-thorough companies but propose that capability to utilize cost different is highly company-specified and that the influence of geographically restricted externalities is even existent. Because the productivity of many... 

Organic-inorganic hybrid halide perovskite materials have been most attractive for wide range of optoelectronic applications. Investigating the photo-response in these devices will be very useful to understanding cell performance in different conditions and applications. For understanding non-linearity photo-response we use the Bathocuproine (BCP) as blocking layer in two interfaces of inverted perovskite solar cell (FTO/NiO/BCP/Perovskite/PCBM/Au and FTO/NiO/Perovskite/PCBM/BCP/Au). Employing thick BCP layer (≈15 nm) caused s-shaped JV curve due to charge accumulation at interfaces. The nonlinearity effect was also explored for devices with s-shaped JV and established that device parameters... 

In this study the influence of morphology of vertically oriented titanium oxide nanotube arrays (TNTAs) on their photocatalytic activities was investigated. To obtain nanotubes with different morphologies, they were prepared at different anodization voltages. The size of TNTAs were measured using SEM images and also determined based on a non-destructive optical method; We demonstrate how the tubular geometry of the TNTAs can be used to adjust the optical and also the wetting properties of them and how these properties affect the performance of the nanostructure in further applications as a photocatalyst. To investigate their potentials for environmental applications, the photocatalytic... 

So-called negative capacitance seems to remain an obscure feature in the analysis of the frequency-dependent impedance of perovskite solar cells. It belongs to one of the puzzling peculiarities arising from the mixed ionic-electronic conductivity of this class of semiconductor. Here we show that apparently high capacitances in general (positive and negative) are not related to any capacitive feature in the sense of a corresponding charge accumulation. Instead, they are a natural consequence of slow transients mainly in forward current of the diode upon ion displacement when changing voltage. The transient current leads to a positive or negative ‘capacitance’ dependent on the sign of its... 

Self-organised and vertically oriented titanium oxide nanotube array (TNTA) has been synthesised by potentiostat anodisation of Ti foil in fluoride-based electrolyte. By varying the anodisation voltage from 8 V to 24 V it was possible to gradually change the topologies of nanotubes. The size of TNTAs was measured using SEM images and also determined based on a non-destructive optical method. In addition, photoelectrochemical properties of nanotubular TiO2/Ti electrodes were examined by anodic photocurrent response, potentiodynamic polarisation measurements and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. A general equivalent circuit model was proposed for photoelectrochemical system consists of... 

Chalcostibite copper antimony sulfide (CuSbS2) micro- and nanoparticles with a different shape and size have been prepared by a new approach to hot injection route. In this method, sulfur in oleylamine (OLA) is employed as a sulfonating agent providing a simple route to control the shape and size of the particles, which enables the optimization of CuSbS2 for a variety of applications. The sulfur to metallic precursor ratio appears to be one of the most effective parameters along with the temperature and time for controlling the size and morphology of the particles. The growth mechanism study shows in addition to the CuSbS2 phase the presence of not previously observed intermediate phases... 

We report on fabrication of halide perovskite solar cells using a two-step spin-spray coating rout. The applied method is one of the most straight forward procedures for fabricating uniform stoichiometry and crystalline perovskite cells. To fabricate a high quality perovskite layer, various concentrations of methyl-ammonium iodide (CH3NH3I) were sprayed on a spin coated PbI2 layer using a simple airbrush gun. The characterization results indicate that the size of cuboid perovskite morphology depends on the concentration of methylammonium iodide in the spray procedure. The photovoltaic performance of the fabricated solar cells has been measured and a high dependency on the cuboid sizes was...