High-performance plastic dye-sensitized solar cells based on low-cost commercial P25 TiO2 and organic dye.
High-performance plastic dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) based on low-cost commercial Degussa P25 TiO(2) and organic indoline dye D149 have been fabricated using electrophoretic deposition (EPD) with compression post-treatment at room temperature. The pressed EPD electrode outperformed the sintered EPD electrode and as-prepared EPD electrode in short-circuit current density and power conversion efficiency. About 150% and 180% enhancement in power conversion efficiency have been achieved in DSC devices with sintering and compression post-treatment as compared to the as-prepared electrode, respectively. Several characterizations including intensity modulated photocurrent spectroscopy, incident photon-to-electron conversion efficiency and electrochemical impedance spectra have been employed to reveal the nature of improvement with post-treatment. Experimental results indicate that the sintering and compression post-treatment are beneficial to improve the electron transport and thus lead to the enhancement of photocurrent and power conversion efficiency. In addition, the compression post-treatment is more efficient than sintering post-treatment in improving interparticle connection in the as-prepared EPD electrode. Under optimized conditions, the conversion efficiency of plastic devices with D149-sensitized P25 TiO(2) photoanode has reached 5.76% under illumination of AM 1.5G (100 mW cm(-2)). This study demonstrates that the EPD combined with compression post-treatment provides a way to fabricate highly efficient plastic photovoltaic devices.
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117576.
Xiong
X
Yin
Zhaosheng
Z
Xue
Long
L
Wang
Yueming
Y
Cheng
Bin
B
Liu
D000327:Adsorption; D004396:Coloring Agents / Q000737:chemistry*; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D058266:Dielectric Spectroscopy; D004560:Electricity; D004583:Electrons; D007211:Indoles / Q000737:chemistry*; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000191:economics*; D009584:Nitrogen / Q000737:chemistry; D010969:Plastics / Q000737:chemistry*; D016062:Porosity; D012993:Solar Energy; D013696:Temperature; D014025:Titanium / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000191:economics*
D004396:Coloring Agents; D007211:Indoles; D010969:Plastics; C009495:titanium dioxide; C057812:indoline; D014025:Titanium; D009584:Nitrogen