Innovative semiconducting oxide materials reducing the energy footprint of buildings

In the current energy context, many efforts are devoted to the reduction of the energy footprint of buildings.
To meet this challenge, the LCIS-GREENMAT laboratory developes a front edge research in the field of advanced materials associated to energy and environment, including structured materials for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) and electrochromic coatings.
DSSCs have been reported by O’Regan and Grätzel in the early nineties as a very promising alternative to conventional photovoltaic silicon devices. Main benefits of these cells are their low cost as well as their mild manufacturing process. In most of the specific literature, DSSCs are made of TiO2 films prepared by doctor-blade or screen-printing of anatase nanoparticles paste. However, due to the random organization of the nanoparticles, pore accessibility by the dye and electrolyte could be incomplete. Moreover, some anatase crystallites could suffer from a lack of connectivity, leading to electron transfer issues.
The strategy adopted by our group to improve photovoltaic efficiencies involves a templating-assisted process to prepare highly porous layers with well-ordered and accessible pores as well as improved crystallites connectivity. This talk especially focuses on the templating-assisted synthesis of TiO2 and ZnO semiconducting layers used as photoelectrode in DSSCs. Due to the surface area improvement as well as the perfect control of the pore organization and the pore size, the templating strategy is an effective solution to maximize the adsorption of active dye and the electrolyte infiltration inside the porous network.
Besides, in the last few years, there has been increasing interest in electrochromic glazing due to its potential use as an energy-efficient component for buildings, as it could reduce considerably their CO2 emission by decreasing their energy consumption up to 30%. The crucial issues of such devices are the durability, the coloration efficiency and the reversibility upon coloration and bleaching of the electrochromic layers.
In order to improve the performances of those electrochromic films, we have investigated a surfactant-assisted deposition process for WO3 layer and the insertion of lithium in the NiO layer. All films have been deposited on FTO glass substrates by ultrasonic spray pyrolysis (USP), which is a low-cost alternative to industrial vacuum processes for manufacturing high quality thin films. The presence of lithium ions in nickel oxide films has shown improved coloration efficiency compared to the undoped films. The higher active surface of surfactant-assisted tungsten oxide films has led to higher reversibility and coloration contrast.