Dr. T.S.Senthil, Professor, Department of Physics, Erode Sengunthar Engineering College, India

Title: Hydrothermally Synthesized TiO₂ Nanorods decorated with α-alumina for the power conversion Efficiency of Dye-sensitized Solar Cells

Abstract: Novel TiO₂ nanorod arrays (TNAs) decorated with α-alumina (α-Al₂O₃) have been fabricated on the fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) by simple hydrothermal method. The crystallinity and the presence of α-Al₂O₃ on TNAs were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive spectra (EDX) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). The optical and morphological properties of the films were analyzed by using UV–Vis spectra and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). The growth of α-Al₂O₃ was much influenced by the morarity concentrations of crystalline seeds. The dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) manufactured using 3% α-Al₂O₃ incorporated TNAs shows an improved power conversion of 6.5% with the short-circuit current density of 15.23 mA cm⁻², open-circuit photo voltage of 0.68 V and fill factor of 0.63.

Keywords: α-alumina, TiO₂ nanorods, Hydrothermal, Dye-sensitized solar cells