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Enhanced electron collection efficiency of nanostructured dye-sensitized solar cells by incorporating TiO2 cubes

Sarvari, N ; Sharif University of Technology | 2018

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  1. Type of Document: Article
  2. DOI: 10.1111/jace.15184
  3. Publisher: Blackwell Publishing Inc , 2018
  4. Abstract:
  5. Herein, enhancement of dye-sensitized solar cell (DSC) performance is reported by combining the merits of the dye loading of TiO2 nanoparticles and light scattering, straight carrier transport path, and efficient electron collection efficiency of TiO2 cubes. We fabricate DSC devices with various arrangement styles and compositions of the electrodes in the forms of monolayer and double layer films. For this purpose, the solvothermal synthesized TiO2 cubic particles (100-600 nm) are employed as the scattering layer, whereas TiO2 nanoparticles (15-30 nm) synthesized via a combination of solvothermal and sol-gel routes are used as the active layer of devices. We improve the photovoltaic characteristics of DSCs by two mechanisms. First, the light harvesting of DSC devices made of nanoparticles is improved by controlling the thickness of monolayer films, reaching the highest efficiency of 7.0%. Second, the light scattering and electron collection efficiency are enhanced by controlling the composition of double layer films composed of mixtures of TiO2 nanoparticles and cubes, obtaining the maximum efficiency of 8.21%. The enhancements are attributed to balance between charge transfer resistance and charge recombination of photo-generated electrons as well as dye loading and light scattering. © 2017 The American Ceramic Society
  6. Keywords:
  7. double layer solar cells ; electron collection efficiency ; light harvesting ; TiO2 cubes ; TiO2 nanoparticles ; Charge transfer ; Efficiency ; Electrons ; Geometry ; Light scattering ; Monolayers ; Nanoparticles ; Sol-gel process ; Sol-gels ; Solar cells ; Synthesis (chemical) ; Double layers ; Electron collections ; Light-harvesting ; TiO2 nano-particles ; Dye-sensitized solar cells
  8. Source: Journal of the American Ceramic Society ; Volume 101, Issue 1 , 2018 , Pages 293-306 ; 00027820 (ISSN)
  9. URL: https://ceramics.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jace.15184