• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.08a
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• pp.75.2-75.2
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• 2013

Atomic layer deposition (ALD), utilizing self-limiting surface reactions, could offer promising perspectives for future efficient energy conversion devices. The capabilities of ALD for surface/interface modification and construction of novel architectures with sub-nanometer precision and exceptional conformality over high aspect ratio make it more valuable than any other deposition methods in nanoscale science and technology. In the context, a variety of researches on fabrication of active materials for energy conversion applications by ALD are emerging. Among those materials, one-dimensional nanotubular titanium dioxide, providing not only high specific surface area but also efficient carrier transport pathway, is a class of the most intensively explored materials for energy conversion systems, such as photovoltaic cells and photo/electrochemical devices. The monodisperse, stoichiometric, anatase, TiO2 nanotubes with smooth surface morphology and controlled wall thickness were fabricated via low-temperature template-directed ALD followed by subsequent annealing. The ALD-grown, anatase, TiO2 nanotubes in alumina template show unusual crystal growth behavior which allows to form remarkably large grains along axial direction over certain wall thickness. We also fabricated dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) introducing our anatase TiO2 nanotubes as photoanodes, and studied the effect of blocking layer, TiO2 thin films formed by ALD, on overall device efficiency. The photon convertsion efficiency ~7% were measured for our TiO2 nanotubebased DSCs with blocking layers, which is ~1% higher than ones without blocking layer. We also performed open circuit voltage decay measurement to estimate recombination rate in our cells, which is 3 times longer than conventional nanoparticulate photoanodes. The high efficiency of our ALD-grown, anatase, TiO2 nanotube-based DSCs may be attributed to both enhanced charge transport property of our TiO2 nanotubes photoanode and the suppression of recombination at the interface between transparent conducting electrode and iodine electrolytes by blocking layer.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.23 no.8
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• pp.655-659
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• 2010

Nanoporous titanium dioxide ($TiO_2$) is very attractive material for various applications due to the high surface to volume ratio. In this study, we have fabricated nanoporous $TiO_2$ thin films on Si by anodic oxidation. 500-nm-thick titanium (Ti) films were deposited on Si by using electron beam evaporation. Nanoporous structures in the Ti films were obtained by anodic oxidization using ethylene glycol electrolytes containing 0.3 wt% $NH_4F$ and 2 vol% $H_2O$ under an applied bias of 5 V. The diameter of nanopores in the Ti films linearly increased with anodization time and the whole Ti layer could become nanoporous after anodizing for 3 hours, resulting in vertically aligned nanotubes with the length of 200~300 nm and the diameter of 50~80 nm. Upon annealing at $600^{\circ}C$ in air, the anodized Ti films were fully crystallized to $TiO_2$ of rutile and anatase phases. We believe that our method to fabricate nanoporous $TiO_2$ films on Si is promising for applications to thin-film gas sensors and thin-film photovoltaics.