Porous high surface area scaffolds from cellulose derivatives for dye-sensitized solar cell and water splitting applications

Helge Lemmetyinen^a, Arto Hiltunen^a

^aTampere University of Technology, Finland, Tampere, Finland

International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics
Proceedings of International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics 2015 (HOPV15)

Roma, Italy, 2015 May 11th - 13th

Organizer: Filippo De Angelis

Poster, Arto Hiltunen, 343
Publication date: 5th February 2015

We have prepared porous high surface area scaffolds from cellulose derivatives for solar cell and water splitting applications. Cellulose is the most abundant organic polymer on earth and thus is an ideal material for environmentally friendly energy production. Nanostructuring has proven to be a proper way to increase the efficiency of devices that are able to split water to produce oxygen and hydrogen. [1] In general, nanostructuring will enhance the active area of the device which will lead to higher efficiencies. But especially in water splitting applications, devices built from materials that have short hole diffusion lengths will benefit from nanostructuring due to the shortened distance that the hole has to travel in order to find water. [2] Our nanostructured cellulose scaffolds can be coated with metal oxides using atomic layer deposition. Heating the substrates in oven will allow the removal of cellulose from the structure which will free the area that was occupied by the scaffold to be used by the reaction. Here we present the benefits of cellulose scaffolds in water splitting and dye sensitized solar cell applications.
Titaniumdioxide nanostructure obtained using a cellulose scaffold
[1] Warren, S.; Voïtchovsky, K.; Dotan, H.; Leroy, C.; Cornuz, M.; Stellacci, F.; Hébert, C.; Rothschild, A.; Grätzel, M.; Identifying champion nanostructures for solar water-splitting. Nature Materials, 12, 842-849. [2] Kim, J.; Magesh, G.; Young, D.; Jang, J.; Kubota, J.; Domen, K.; Lee, J.; Single-crystalline, wormlike hematite photoanodes for eﬃcient solar water splitting. Nature Scientiﬁc Reports, 3:2681, September, 2013.

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