Synthesis and characterization of TiO2/SiO2 nano composites for solar cell applications

The use of titania–silica in photocatalytic process has been proposed as an alternative to the conventional TiO 2 catalysts. Mesoporous materials have been of great interest as catalysts because of their unique textural and structural properties. Mesoporous TiO 2 , SiO 2 nanoparticles and TiO 2 /SiO 2 nanocomposites were successfully synthesized by sol–gel method using titanium (IV) isopropoxide, tetra-ethylorthosilicate as starting materials. The synthesized samples are characterized by X-ray diffraction, UV–Vis spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Brunauett–Emmett–Teller and field-dependent photoconductivity. The UV–Vis spectrum of as-synthesized samples shows similar absorption in the visible range. The crystallite size of the as-synthesized samples was calculated by Scherrer’s formula. The BET surface area for TiO 2 /SiO 2 nanocomposite is found to be 303 m 2 /g and pore size distribution has average pore diameter about 10 nm. It also confirms the absence of macropores and the presence of micro and mesopores. The field-dependent photoconductivity of TiO 2 /SiO 2 nanocomposite shows nearly 300 folds more than that of TiO 2 nanoparticle for a field of 800 V/cm.