Low temperature thermally stimulated current characterization of nanoporous TiO2 films (Phys. Status Solidi A 8∕2014). Issue 8 (August 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Bruzzi, Mara; Mori, Riccardo; Carnevale, Ennio; Scaringella, Monica; Bogani, Franco
• Is Part Of: Physica status solidi. Volume 211:Issue 8(2014:Aug.)
• Page Start: n/a
• Page End: n/a
• Publication Date: 2014-08
• Subjects: Solid state physics -- Periodicals; Solids -- Industrial applications -- Periodicals; 530.41
• DOI: 10.1002/pssa.201470249
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1862-6300

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="graphical"> <title> <x xml:space="preserve">Abstract</x> </title> <p>Among the numerous applications of TiO<sub>2</sub> nanoparticles, dye sensitized solar cells (DSSC) have received a growing interest as low‐cost devices for photovoltaic energy production. The improvement of their performance requires a better charge separation and collection and then a higher conductivity of the TiO<sub>2</sub> matrix, which, being in the nanocrystalline (nc) form, is highly disordered material. It is therefore of utmost importance to determine the role of the defect distribution on the transport properties of nc‐TiO<sub>2</sub>. Thermally Stimulated Currents (TSC) is a powerful technique to analyse those defects, nonetheless, a thorough model to discuss TSC emission in highly disordered materials is still lacking. Both multi‐trapping and hopping conduction mechanisms should be considered in principle, but the importance of these two mechanisms is still controversial, also owing to the fact that they predict the same behaviour. Mara Bruzzi et al. (see the Invited Article on pp. <ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/pssa.201330608" xlink:type="simple" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">1691–1697</ext-link>) present a set of TSC measurements devised to elucidate the role in the TiO<sub>2</sub> conductivity of the localized states induced by disorder. The experimental results are analysed without any a‐priori assumption on the conduction mechanism, considering the two mechanisms of multi‐trapping and hopping as complementary rather than alternatives. <boxed-text content-type="graphic" position="anchor" orientation="portrait"><graphic position="anchor" mimetype="image" xlink:href="ark:/27927/pgh11njgkz2" orientation="portrait" xlink:type="simple" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" /></boxed-text></p> </abstract>