Synthesis of Nanoporous TiO₂and Its Potential Applicability for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell Using Antocyanine Black Rice

Nanoporous mesostructure TiO 2 powders were synthesized by sol-gel method, withTiCl4as a precursor in methanol solution. The Pluronic PE 6200 of block copolymer was used as the pores template. It was found from XRD measurements, both at400∘C and450∘C calcination temperatures, that the sol-gel technique yielded the nanoporous TiO 2 with anatase phase. Based onN2adsorption characterization using BET method, the TiO 2 samples have surface area of 108 m2/g and 88 m2/g for calcination temperatures of400∘C and of450∘C, respectively. From small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) patterns, TiO 2 samples were observed to have nanoporous structures with pore sizes between 22–24 nm. The TiO 2 also have order degree which depends on the calcination temperature. The potential applicability of the resulting TiO 2 is confirmed for dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC), composed of nanoporous anatase TiO 2 and natural dye from antocyanine black rice. UV-Vis measurement of dye extracted from the black rice indicated that the antocyanine chelate can propagate into the TiO 2 nanoporous network. The short circuit photocurrent density (Jsc) under 100 mWcm−2reached 1.287 mAcm−2with open circuit photovoltage (Voc) of 550 mV and the fill factor of 33.4%. The results show that the hybrid organic-inorganic structures are very attractive for future low-cost devices.