TiO2/GO nanocomposites: synthesis, characterization, and DSSC application

In this investigation, titanium dioxide and TiO2/graphene oxide nanocomposites were synthesized and coated on FTO glass using the doctor blade method to act as a photoanode in the fabricated dye-sensitized solar cells. X-ray diffraction pattern analysis, Raman spectroscopy, and FTIR confirmed the presence of GO in TiO2/GO nanocomposites. XRD peaks of the TiO2 sample were indexed to the tetragonal rutile structure; however, some weak peaks were also assigned to the anatase phase. In addition, the amount of GO in the composite caused an increase in current density from 10.18 mAcm(-2) in the fabricated cell using pure TiO2 to 10.79 mAcm(-2) in the cell fabricated using 0.001 wt% GO in TiO2/GO nanocomposite. The obtained results give insights into the role of GO in the enhancement of the DSSC device's performance and present a simple method for the synthesis of novel photoanodes.