Photosensitive nanostructured TiO2 grown at room temperature by novel “bottom-up” approached CBD method

The current paper incorporates with a “bottom-up” approached chemical bath deposition method to grow titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanostructure at room temperature on glass and stainless steel substrates. The room temperature deposited TiO2 films are heat treated at 673 K for 1 h in air and the corresponding change in structural, morphological and optical properties are studied by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and UV–VIS–NIR spectrophotometer. The heat-treated films are utilized as a photocathode in photoelectrochemical (PEC) cell in 1 M NaOH electrolyte. The experimental results show that, the CBD method allows formation of photosensitive, anatase TiO2 thin film, which can be potentially tuned in many functional applications with feasibility.

Research highlights
► The TiO2 nanoflakes like morphology have been controllably synthesized by the CBD method with NH4Cl as complexing agent.
► The XRD and FTIR studies confirmed the formation of anatase TiO2 thin film.
► The SEM images reveal the improvement in flower size of TiO2 as an effect of heat treatment.
► The strong influence of wide band gap of this electrode in spite this, PEC performance can motivate to check its feasibility in DSSC's devices.