Elsevier

Particuology

Volume 22, October 2015, Pages 13-23
Particuology

Invited review and perspective
Hollow spherical titanium dioxide nanoparticles for energy and environmental applications

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.partic.2015.03.001Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Synthetic approaches of hollow spherical TiO2 nanoparticles were reviewed.

  • Their performances in DSSCs, photocatalysts and batteries were reviewed.

  • Perspectives on further improving their synthesis and characterization methods were drawn.

Abstract

Hollow spherical titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles possess unique properties toward energy and environmental applications, because of the intrinsic properties of TiO2 and benefits induced by their hollow structure. A detailed understanding of TiO2 hollow spheres will promote their use in sustainable energy and environmental applications. This perspective details current methods for synthesizing hollow spherical TiO2 nanoparticles, and their performance in dye-sensitized solar cells, photocatalysts, and batteries. This perspective will promote the design and innovative thinking on the application of hollow spherical metal oxide nanoparticles.

Introduction

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is a multifunctional material used in pigments, cosmetics, and food additives since the early twentieth century (Chen & Mao, 2007). TiO2 has recently shown promise in energy and environmental applications, such as solar cells (Bai, Mora-Seró, De Angelis, Bisquert, & Wang, 2014), photocatalysts (Ma et al., 2014), and batteries (Su et al., 2012, Yang et al., 2009). TiO2 exhibits unique optical, electrical, and chemical properties, and is non-toxic and widely abundant (Su, Lu, Tian, Ma, & Gong, 2013). Many strategies have been proposed for improving the performance of TiO2 in energy and environmental applications, with fine control of its morphology being one of the most effective (Osterloh, 2013). TiO2 nanospheres (Kim et al., 2009), nanorods/nanowires/nanobelts (Hoang et al., 2012, Liu and Aydil, 2009, Tian et al., 2014, Zhou et al., 2013), and nanotubes (El Ruby Mohamed and Rohani, 2011, Lee et al., 2014, Paramasivam et al., 2012) have all been synthesized, and have exhibited favorable properties in various applications. Hollow spherical TiO2 structures possess large specific surface areas, enhanced light scattering properties, and their inner and outer surfaces can be controlled and selectively functionalized. Hollow spherical TiO2 has shown good performance in energy and environmental applications.

In this review we discuss approaches for synthesizing hollow spherical TiO2 materials, including templating and solvothermal methods. The application of hollow spherical TiO2 in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), photocatalysts, and batteries is then reviewed. Directions for future research on TiO2 hollow spheres are finally discussed.

Section snippets

Templating method

This method for synthesizing hollow spherical TiO2 nanoparticles involves coating TiO2 precursors onto polymer beads or inorganic nanoparticles, which act as sacrificial templates. The template is subsequently removed by annealing or chemical etching. The particle size and dispersibility and surface properties of the template greatly affect the properties of the resulting hollow spherical TiO2 nanoparticles. Tuning the geometries or functionalizing the surfaces of carefully selected templates

DSSCs

Solar cells convert solar energy into electricity, and are a promising alternative to fossil fuel reserves for meeting increasing energy demands. DSSCs have attracted tremendous attention and development since their first report, which utilized mesoporous TiO2 of large surface area (O’Regan & Grätzel, 1991).

A typical DSSC (Fig. 6) contains a mesoporous metal oxide (usually TiO2) deposited on a transparent conducting substrate (Hagfeldt, Boschloo, Sun, Kloo, & Pettersson, 2010). The mesoporous

Conclusions and perspectives

This review covers synthetic approaches for hollow spherical TiO2 nanoparticles, and their performance in DSSCs, photocatalysts, and batteries. However, the application of TiO2 hollow spheres is not limited to these. They have also been investigated as sensors (Yang, Hu, Cao, Yuan, & Xu, 2010), heterogeneous water treatment catalysts (Linley, Leshuk, & Gu, 2013), and membrane components (Liu, Jiang, Wang, & Yang, 2013). The high activity of TiO2 hollow spheres in these applications results from

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. U1463205, 21222604, 51302185), Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (No. NCET-10-0611), Scientific Research Foundation for the Returned Overseas Chinese Scholars (MoE), and Program of Introducing Talents of Discipline to Universities (No. B06006) for financial support.

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