TY - JOUR A1 - Wollschläger, Nicole A1 - Palasse, L. A1 - Häusler, Ines A1 - Dirscherl, K. A1 - Oswald, F. A1 - Narbey, S. A1 - Ortel, Erik A1 - Hodoroaba, Vasile-Dan T1 - Characterization of the inner structure of porous TiO2 nanoparticle films in dye sensitive solar cells (DSSC) by focused ion beam (FIB) tomography and transmission Kikuchi diffraction (TKD) in the scanning electron microscope (SEM) N2 - A combined methodical approach is tested for the first time with respect to the characterization of the inner structure of porous TiO2 layers infiltrated with ruthenium molecular sensitizer as typically used in modern dye sensitized solar cells (DSSC). Their performance is directly linked to the surface area ‘offered’ by the pore Network to the dye. The micrometer thick layer employed was manufactured by screen-printing of a starting TiO2 powder constituted of shape-controlled, bipyramidal anatase nanoparticles (NPs) on FTO/glass substrates. The analytical methods exploited in our study are Focused Ion Beam (FIB) slicing followed by 3D reconstruction as well as the new approach transmission Kikuchi diffraction (TKD) technology in the scanning electron microscope (SEM). While the first method results in the visualization of the 3D pore network within the TiO2 layer, the second one can be successfully applied to analyze the crystal orientation of grains (i.e. NPs in our case) in nanometer resolution. Moreover, size and shape distribution of the TiO2 NPs within the layer can be extracted. SEM in transmission mode and atomic force microscopy (AFM) have been used to verify the dimensional data obtained by the new combined methodical approach. Its analytical benefits but also the challenges and limitations are highlighted. KW - Transmission Kikuchi diffraction KW - Focused ion beam tomography KW - Titanium dioxide KW - Nanoparticles KW - Porosity KW - Particle size KW - DSSC PY - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matchar.2017.06.030 SN - 1044-5803 SN - 1873-4189 VL - 131 SP - 39 EP - 48 PB - Elsevier AN - OPUS4-40875 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Wollschläger, Nicole T1 - 3D reconstruction of thin porous TiO2 nano-particle films using focused ion beam technique N2 - The present talk serves the routine characterization of the porous structure of unordered anatase NP-fillings by screen printing. Therefore the Focused Ion Beam technique was used to cut a defined volume of material slice per slice of the given material. From each slice electron micrographs are recorded. The won stack of images is than further processed using binarization and segmentation to reconstruct either the mesh of particles or pores. From the calibrated length-scales in the scanning electron microscope it is possible to determine the particular volumes for pore and material. T2 - International Summer School: Nanoscience meets Metrology CY - Turin, Italy DA - 04.09.2016 KW - DSSC KW - Titanium dioxide KW - 3D reconstruction KW - Focused ion beam KW - Porosity PY - 2016 AN - OPUS4-38245 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -