3D electron microscopy of TiO2-based hybrid solar cells

When?

Thursday 17 May 2012, 13:00

Where?

02ATI02

Open to:

Staff, Students

Speaker:

Dr Caterina Ducati, Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge

The global need for sustainable energy production is pushing scientific research towards the development of inexpensive solar cells which can compete with established commercial silicon-based technologies. Titanium dioxide based devices are promising for hybrid systems in which the nanoscale structure and the interfacial properties of the different components play a vital role in determining the overall efficiency of the cell. In order to understand and optimize the performance of final devices, we study cross sections of hybrid solar cells in the transmission electron microscope. In this talk I will describe how high resolution TEM data can be combined with dark field electron tomography reconstructions, to obtain a full 3D characterization of the titania photoanode and a unique view of the fine scale cell architecture.