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Gel-Electrolyte Based Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell Employing Mesoporous Tio2 Beads

Mohsenzadegan, Nima | 2020

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  1. Type of Document: M.Sc. Thesis
  2. Language: Farsi
  3. Document No: 52652 (07)
  4. University: Sharif University of Technology
  5. Department: Materials Science and Engineering
  6. Advisor(s): Askarim, Masoud; Mohammadi, Mohammad Reza
  7. Abstract:
  8. Nowadays, dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) are highly regarded as a cheap alternative for conventional silicon-based solar cells. Improvements of their efficiency and performance sustainability are two major challenges of their commercialization. Engineering of the photoanode electrode by controlling its thickness, chemical composition, and morphology was proposed as effective method in increasing the light conversion efficiency of the cells. In the present study, mesoporous TiO2 beads with different arrangements including pristine mesoporous beads, mixtures of mesoporous beads with nanoparticles, and in the form of two-layer structure of nanoparticles (as an active layer) and mesoporous beads (as scattering layer) were used as photoanode. Moreover, the optimum thickness of the photoanode electrode was obtained for all arrangements. Amongst all fabricated devices, electrode made of pristine mesoporous beads and optimum thickness of 18.5 µm (for liquid electrolyte) and 12.5 µm (for gel polymer electrolyte) showed the best photovoltaic performance with conversion efficiencies of 9.28% and 9.8%, respectively. The second challenge of DSSCs is their low stability due to the volatility of the liquid electrolyte. Gel polymer electrolyte as an alternative to the liquid one was also prepared to improve the stability of the devices. Performance-evaluation of devices over time showed that the stability of the gel polymer electrolyte-based solar cells was far greater than that of liquid electrolyte-based devices. The stability of the cells containing liquid electrolyte was about 200 hours, whereas the samples containing gel polymer electrolyte retained their stability up to 20% of the initial value up to 600 hours
  9. Keywords:
  10. Mesoporous Titanium Dioxide ; Gel Polymer Electrolytes (GPE) ; Dye Sensitized Solar Cells

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