Metal–Organic Framework Derived Hierarchical Porous Anatase TiO₂ as a Photoanode for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell

Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) have been generating a great deal of interest due to their high specific surface area, regular pore structure, and adjustable aperture. However, only a few studies explored their application in the field of photovoltaic devices. In the present work, MIL-125­(Ti), one kind of MOFs, was investigated as the precursor for TiO₂ photoanode of dye-sensitized solar cells for the first time. Herein, pure anatase TiO₂ with a hierarchical structure was synthesized through the decomposition of MIL-125­(Ti), which avoids the use of templates and fussy operation of sol–gel methods. The obtained TiO₂ has a specific surface area of 147 m² g^–1 and a mean pore size value of 10 nm. When used as a photoanode material in dye-sensitized solar cells, the device gave rise to an overall energy conversion efficiency of 7.20%, which is better than the performance of the P25 based photoanode