Self-assembled peptide nanofiber templated ALD growth of TiO2 and ZnO semiconductor nanonetworks

Abstract

Here peptide amphiphile (PA) nanofiber network is exploited as a three‐dimensional soft template to construct anatase TiO2 and wurtzite ZnO nanonetworks. Atomic layer deposition (ALD) technique is used to coat the organic nanonetwork template with TiO2and ZnO. ALD method enables uniform and conformal coatings with precisely controlled TiO2 and ZnO thickness. The resulting semiconducting metal oxide nanonetworks are utilized as anodic materials in dye‐sensitized solar cells. Effect of metal oxide layer thickness on device performance is studied. The devices based on thin TiO2 coatings (<10 nm) demonstrate considerable dependence on material thickness, whereas thicker (>17 nm) ZnO‐based devices do not show an explicit correlation.