Preparation of porous titanium oxide films onto indium tin oxide for application in organic photovoltaic devices

In this work, porous ordered TiO2 films were prepared through sol gel route by using a monolayer of polystyrene spheres as template on indium-tin oxide/glass substrate. These films were characterized by SEM, AFM, Raman spectroscopy, UV-vis absorbance and XRD. The UV-vis absorbance spectrum show a pseudo band gap (PBG) with maxima at 460 nm arising from the light scattering and partial or total suppression of the photon density of states, this PBG can be controlled by the size of the pore. We also propose the use of this porous film as electron acceptor electrode in organic photovoltaic cells; we show that devices prepared with porous titania displayed higher efficiencies than devices using compact titania films as electrode. Such behaviour was observed in both bilayer and bulk heterojunction devices.

Graphical abstractDownload full-size imageHighlights► Porous ordered TiO2 films were prepared through sol gel route by using a monolayer of polystyrene spheres as template on indium-tin oxide/glass substrate. ► UV-vis absorbance spectrum show a pseudo band gap (PBG) with maxima at 460 nm. ► Organic solar cell prepared with porous titania interlayer displayed higher efficiencies than devices using compact titania films as electrode.