Growth of CdS Nanorod-Coated TiO2 Nanowires on Conductive Glass for Photovoltaic Applications

Synthesis of TiO2 nanowires directly on conductive and transparent glass substrates would be very useful for various applications such as photovoltaics and photocatalysis. Here, we report for the first time that single-crystalline TiO2 nanowires can be synthesized on fluorine-doped tin oxide (SnO2:F)-coated soda-time glass substrates by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) at a temperature that is below the glass softening temperature ( < 530 degrees C). Moreover, we demonstrate that CdS nanorods with high crystallinity can be grown on top of the TiO2 nanowire surface via chemical vapor transport (CVT) at 500 degrees C. Resulting TiO2@CdS heterostructure that has type-II band alignment showed increased absorption over the wavelength range of visible light. The TiO2@CdS-based inorganic-dye sensitized solar cells (DSSC) were fabricated by filling liquid electrolytes and their cell operation was demonstrated with conversion efficiency.