Enhanced Performance of TiO2 Composites for Solar Cells and Photocatalytic Hydrogen Production

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is widely used in solar cells and photocatalysts, given its excellent photoactivity, low cost, and high structural, electronic, and optical stability. Here, a novel TiO2 composite was prepared by coating TiO2 inverse opal (IO) with TiO2 nanorods (NRs). With a porous three-dimensional network structure, the composite exhibited higher light absorption; enhanced the separation of the electron–hole pairs; deepened the infiltration of the electrolyte; better transported and collected charge carriers; and greatly improved the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the quantum-dot sensitized solar cells (QDSSCs) based on it, while also boosting its own photocatalytic hydrogen generation efficiency. A very high PCE of 12.24% was achieved by QDSSCs utilizing CdS/CdSe sensitizer. Furthermore, the TiO2 composite exhibited high photocatalytic activity with a H2 release rate of 1080.2 μ mol h−1 g−1, several times that of bare TiO2 IO or TiO2 NRs.