Structural and Optical Properties of Core-shell TiO2/Mgo Nanostructures at Different Annealing Temperatures

Titanium di Oxide nanostructures are recently in considerable demand as a model material for photovoltaic devices. Dye Sensitized Solar Cells fabricated with TiO₂ nanoparticles as photo anode have been reported previously in various publications. Recently TiO₂ nanotubes heve been found useful as photo catalyst, photo anode, sensor, and in photoelctrolysis too. Here we report on the synthesis and optical properties of TiO₂ nanostructure as well as core-shell TiO₂/MgO nanostructures with the core annealed at different temperatures. TiO₂ nanoparticles are prepared by a sol-gel method and to the prepared TiO₂ nanoparticles, Mg(OH)₂ solution is added to avail the coating of MgO layer on the surface of TiO₂ nanoparticles. A strong UV absorption is observed in case of both TiO₂ and TiO₂/MgO nanostructures. The XRD patterns confirm the presence of both TiO₂and MgO in the core-shell structure. Also the TEM inage confirms the core-shell structure of the sample. The effect of varied annealing temperature of the core in the core-shell structure is also investigated via spectroscopic and morphological tools. The prepared core-shell nanostructures are expected to show good performance as photo anode in photovoltaic devices.