Effect of binders on microstructure and photoelectrochemical properties of the TiO2 film photoelectrodes

In order to obtain thick, crack-free TiO2 film photoelectrodes, the screen-printed method was employed by using ethylene glycol and ethylene glycol monomethylether (EGME) as binder. The surface morphology of TiO2 film observed by scanning electron microscope (SEM) is porous and coarse. SEM results also show that TiO2 films with binder are crack-free in the microstructure. Optical absorption spectra show that films with binder have stronger ability to adsorb dye molecules than that without binder. I–V curves show that films with binder have better photoelectrochemical (PEC) property than films without binder. Moreover, EGME improves the PEC property of the sample stronger than ethylene glycol.