Synthesis of TiO2 nanorods using wet chemical method and their photovoltaic and humidity sensing applications

ABSTRACT In this work, synthesis of TiO2 nanorods using wet chemical method alongwith their photovoltaic and humidity sensing applications are reported. After successful synthesis of TiO2 nanorods, the material was investigated through X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscope (SEM), Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and UV-Vis spectroscopy. Surface morphology and topology of the synthesized nano material as analyzed by SEM showed porous and tubular structure. EDS confirmed the elemental composition. XRD revealed the rutile phase with minimum crystallite size as 78.60 nm. The optical characterization of nano material has been completed by using FTIR and UV-Vis spectroscopy to confirm the required bond formation and estimate the bandgap (5.86 eV) respectively. Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) characterization exhibited the highly porous nature of the material revealing the surface area of 37.445 m2/g together with mean pore diameter ranging from 9 to 18 nm. Further, the material was employed as photovoltaic cell and humidity sensor. The photovoltaic efficiency was obtained as ∼0.3909 % whereas sensitivity towards humidity as 2.93 pF/%RH and 0.42 MΩ/%RH for capacitance and impedance respectively at room temperature.