title: Single-wire dye-sensitized solar cells wrapped by carbon nanotube film electrodes.
abstract: Conventional fiber-shaped polymeric or dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) are usually made into a double-wire structure, in which a secondary electrode wire (e.g., Pt) was twisted along the primary core wire consisting of active layers. Here, we report highly flexible DSSCs based on a single wire, by wrapping a carbon nanotube film around Ti wire-supported TiO(2) tube arrays as the transparent electrode. Unlike a twisted Pt electrode, the CNT film ensures full contact with the underlying active layer, as well as uniform illumination along circumference through the entire DSSC. The single-wire DSSC shows a power conversion efficiency of 1.6% under standard illumination (AM 1.5, 100 mW/cm(2)), which is further improved to more than 2.6% assisted by a second conventional metal wire (Ag or Cu). Our DSSC wires are stable and can be bent to large angles up to 90° reversibly without performance degradation.
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Science, State Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Materials and Applications, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Sen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Chunyan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ji
authors.forename: Zhuqiang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Bian
authors.forename: Runhua
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Xinyuan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.forename: Daqin
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Yun
authors.forename: Luhui
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Chunhui
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Anyuan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cao