Design, Fabrication, and Modification of Cost-Effective Nanostructured TiO for Solar Energy Applications - Low-cost Nanomaterials: Toward Greener and More Efficient Energy Applications - page 8

Design, Fabrication, and Modification
of Cost-Effective Nanostructured TiO 2
for Solar Energy Applications

Meidan Ye, Miaoqiang Lv, Chang Chen, James Iocozzia,
Changjian Lin and Zhiqun Lin

Abstract One of the greatest challenges for human society and civilization is the
development of powerful technologies to harness renewable solar energy to satisfy
the ever-growing energy demands. Semiconductor nanomaterials have important
applications in the field of solar energy conversion. Among these, TiO 2 represents
one of the most promising functional semiconductors and is extensively utilized in
photoelectrochemical applications, including photocatalysis (e.g., H 2 generation
from water splitting) and photovoltaics (e.g., dye-sensitized solar cells, DSSCs).
As such, many efforts have focused on developing and exploiting cost-effective
nanostructured TiO 2 materials for efficient solar energy applications.

1 Introduction

With worldwide economic development and population growth, global energy
demands have increased dramatically. Today, such demands largely depend on
nonrenewable oil and fossil fuels. The continuous rise in the price of oil and gas
has motivated people to pay closer attention to issues concerning our energy
supply and demand [ 1 ]. In the twentieth century alone, the world population
quadrupled and energy demand went up 16 times. The exponential energy demand
is exhausting fossil fuel supplies at an alarming rate. The mean global energy