Metal-Organic Framework Derived Hierarchical Porous Anatase TiO2 as a Photoanode for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have been generating a great deal of interest due to their high specific surface area, regular pore structure, and adjustable aperture. However, only a few studies explored their application in the field of photovoltaic devices. In the present work, MIL-125(Ti), one kind of MOFs, was investigated as the precursor for TiO2 photoanode of dye-sensitized solar cells for the first time. Herein, pure anatase TiO2 with a hierarchical structure was synthesized through the decomposition of MIL-125(Ti), which avoids the use of templates and fussy operation of sol-gel methods. The obtained TiO2 has a specific surface area of 147 m(2) g(-1) and a mean pore size value of 10 nm. When used as a photoanode material in dye-sensitized solar cells, the device gave rise to an overall energy conversion efficiency of 7.20%, which is better than the performance of the P25 based photoanode.