Combustion synthesis and characterization of nanocrystalline WO3

The energy payback time associated with the semiconductor active material is an important parameter in a photovoltaic solar cell device. Thus lowering the energy requirements for the semiconductor synthesis step or making it more energy-efficient is critical toward making the overall device economics more competitive relative to other nonpolluting energy options. In this communication, combustion synthesis is demonstrated to be a versatile and energy-efficient method for preparing inorganic oxide semiconductors such as tungsten trioxide (WO3) for photovoltaic or photocatalytic solar energy conversion. The energy efficiency of combustion synthesis accrues from the fact that high process temperatures are self-sustained by the exothermicity of the combustion process, and the only external thermal energy input needed is for dehydration of the fuel/oxidizer precursor mixture and bringing it to ignition. Importantly, we show that, in this approach, it is also possible to tune the optical characteristics of the oxide semiconductor (i.e., shift its response toward the visible range of the electromagnetic spectrum) in situ by doping the host semiconductor during the formative stage itself. As a bonus, the resultant material shows enhanced surface properties such as markedly improved organic dye uptake relative to benchmark samples obtained from commercial sources. Finally, this synthesis approach requires only very simple equipment, a feature that it shares with other "mild" inorganic semiconductor synthesis routes such as sol-gel chemistry, chemical bath deposition, and electrodeposition. The present study constitutes the first use of combustion synthesis for preparing WO3 powder comprising nanosized particles.