Impact of carbon-fluorine doped titanium dioxide in the performance of an electrochemical sensing of dopamine and rosebengal sensitized solar cells

The role of Fluorine and Carbon as dopants in the TiO2 based electrochemical sensor and DSSC were presented in this work. A series of Carbon nano-cones and disc doped TiO2 (TC), Fluorine doped TiO2 (FT) and C & F co-doped TiO2 (CFT) powdered samples were prepared via solid state synthesis. The CFT film showed excellent electrochemical sensitivity to the oxidation of dopamine in aqueous solution and could be employed as a dopamine sensor. The proposed sensor exhibited good linear response in the range of 10-820 mu M with a detection limit of 3.6 mu M under optimum conditions. The photovoltaic performances of Rose Bengal sensitized solar cells were assessed through I-V measurements. The CFT based DSSC shows a short-circuit current density and a power conversion efficiency (eta) of 0.908 mA/cm(2) and 0.163% respectively, which is 35% and 38% greater than the performance of other PT based cells. The characterization studies such as UV-Visible spectroscopy, Photoluminescence, TEM and EPR spectroscopy were utilized for further investigation, which helps us to understand how fluorine and carbon play a part in dopamine sensing and solar energy conversion. (C) 2015 Author(s).