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Morphological Manipulation of Photo-Anode Electrode of Nano-Structured TiO2 Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Moradzaman, Mozhgan | 2013

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  1. Type of Document: M.Sc. Thesis
  2. Language: Farsi
  3. Document No: 45112 (07)
  4. University: Sharif University of Technology
  5. Department: Materials Science and Engineering
  6. Advisor(s): Mohammadi, Mohammad Reza
  7. Abstract:
  8. Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) are Photoelectrochemical cells using wide band gap nanoporous oxide semiconductors sensitized by dye molecules. For achieving high efficiency DSSCs preparation of photoanode electrode with high surface aea which leads to adequate dye absorption is necessary. In order to achieve proper morphology, thickness, particles size and porosity, producing a TiO2 nano-structured paste is required. TiO2 powder was prepared using sol-gel method. following a calcination process at 300 degrees, XRD patterns showed presence of anatase and brookite structures with average crystallite size of 9 nm. Additives such as diethylene glycol, acetylacetone and Triton X-100 were used for making the paste. SEM images showed the formation of TiO2 particles in a size range of 40-130 nm. Effect of presence and amount of each additive on morphology of the photoanode electrode and photovoltaic characteristics of the cells was investigated and the optimum amount of each one was achieved. In order to gain the thickness which leads to the optimum photovoltaic performance, four DSSCs with photoanode electrode thicknesses of 4, 6, 13 and 20μm were produced. It was revealed that the 13μm thickness leads to the best photovoltaic performance. The best conversion efficiency (η) for the pastes with formulation 1 (no additives), formulation 2 (adding diethylene glycol ) and formulation 3 ( adding diethylene glycol, acetyalcetone and Triton X-100) were 5.49%, 5.82% and 6.11% respectively. Scattering layers based on micro-particles, nanowires, Cr doped and Zn doped TiO2 nano-particles in rutile crystalline form were used in order to improve the conversion efficiency. The best results were obtained for the DSSC produced with scattering layer consisting of Cr doped TiO2 nano particles with the efficiency of 6.54% . This showed 14.7% improvement from the base paste (with η=5.7%) used for making this DSSC
  9. Keywords:
  10. Dye Sensitized Solar Cells ; Titanium Dioxide Nanostructure ; Paste Formulation ; Scattering Layer

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