scholarly journals Controlled Photoanode Properties for Large-Area Efficient and Stable Dye-Sensitized Photovoltaic Modules

Nanomaterials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 2125
Author(s):  
Wei-Hao Chiu ◽  
Kun-Mu Lee ◽  
Vembu Suryanarayanan ◽  
Jen-Fu Hsu ◽  
Ming-Chung Wu

Nowadays, a dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) attracts attention to its development widely due to its several advantages, such as simple processes, low costs, and flexibility. In this work, we demonstrate the difference in device structures between small size and large size cells (5 cm × 5 cm, 10 cm × 10 cm and 10 cm × 15 cm). The design of the photoanode and dye-sensitized process plays important roles in affecting the cell efficiency and stability. The effects of the TiO2 electrode, using TiCl4(aq) pretreatment and post-treatment processes, are also discussed, whereas, the open-circuit voltage (Voc), short-circuit current density (Jsc), and module efficiency are successfully improved. Furthermore, the effects on module performances by some factors, such as dye solution concentration, dye soaking temperature, and electrolyte injection method are also investigated. We have demonstrated that the output power of a 5 cm × 5 cm DSSC module increases from 86.2 mW to 93.7 mW, and the module efficiency achieves an outstanding performance of 9.79%. Furthermore, enlarging the DSSC modules to two sizes (10 cm × 10 cm and 10 cm × 15 cm) and comparing the performance with different module designs (C-DSSC and S-DSSC) also provides the specific application of polymer sealing and preparing high-efficiency large-area DSSC modules.

2006 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 476-488 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoshikazu Suzuki ◽  
Supachai Ngamsinlapasathian ◽  
Ryuhei Yoshida ◽  
Susumu Yoshikawa

AbstractPartially nanowire-structured TiO2 was prepared by a hydrothermal processing followed by calcination in air. The hydrogen titanate powder as-synthesized was calcined at 300 °C for 4 h to obtain the partially nanowire-structured TiO2. A dye-sensitized solar cell (DSC) with a film thickness of 5.6 μm, fabricated using the partially nanowire-structured TiO2 showed better performance than using a fully nanowire-structured TiO2 or a conventional equi-axed TiO2 nanopowder. The short-circuit current density (JSC), the open-circuit voltage (VOC), the fill factor (FF) and the overall efficiency (η) are 11.9 mA/cm2, 0.754 V, 0.673 and 6.01 %, respectively. The effects of one-dimensional nanostructure and electron expressway concept are discussed.


2017 ◽  
Vol 80 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zainal Arifin ◽  
Sudjito Soeparman ◽  
Denny Widhiyanuriyawan ◽  
Suyitno Suyitno ◽  
Argatya Tara Setyaji

Natural dyes have attracted much researcher’s attention due to their low-cost production, simple synthesis processes and high natural abundance. However the dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) based natural dyes have higher tendency to degradation. This article reports on the enhancement of performance and stability of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) using natural dyes. The natural dyes were extracted from papaya leaves by ethanol solvent at a temperature of 50 °C. Then the extracted dyes were isolated and modified into Mg-chlorophyll using column chromatography. Mg-chlorophyll was then synthesized into Fe-chlorophyll to improve stability. The natural dyes were characterized using ultraviolet-visible spectrometry, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and cyclic voltammetry. The performance of DSSCs was tested using a solar simulator. The results showed the open-circuit voltage, the short-circuit current density, and the efficiency of the extracted papaya leaves-based DSSCs to be 325 mV, 0.36 mA/cm2, and 0.07%, respectively. Furthermore, the DSSCs with purified chlorophyll provide high open-circuit voltage of 425 mV and short-circuit current density of 0.45 mA/cm2. The use of Fe-chlorophyll for sensitizing the DSSCs increases the efficiency up to 2.5 times and the stability up to two times. The DSSCs with Fe-chlorophyll dyes provide open-circuit voltage, short-circuit current density, and efficiency of 500 mV, 0.62 mA/cm2, and 0.16%, respectively. Further studies to improve the current density and stability of natural dye-based DSSCs along with an improvement in the anchor between dyes and semiconducting layers are required.


2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (04) ◽  
pp. 2050053
Author(s):  
Fatemeh Ghavami ◽  
Alireza Salehi

In this paper, the performance of copper-indium-gallium-diselenide Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cell, with ZnO window layer, ZnSe buffer layer, CIGS absorber layer and InGaP reflector layer was studied. The study was performed using the TCAD Silvaco simulator. The effects of grading the band gap of CIGS absorber layer, the various thicknesses and doping concentrations of different layers have been investigated. By optimizing the solar cell structure, we have obtained a maximum open circuit voltage of 0.91901 V, a short circuit current density of 39.89910 mA/cm2, a fill factor (FF) of 86.67040% and an efficiency of 31.78% which is much higher than the values for similar CIGS solar cells reported so far.


2011 ◽  
Vol 64 (7) ◽  
pp. 951 ◽  
Author(s):  
Perumal Rajakumar ◽  
Kathiresan Visalakshi ◽  
Shanmugam Ganesan ◽  
Pichai Maruthamuthu ◽  
Samuel Austin Suthanthiraraj

Synthesis of polyolefinic aromatic molecules with pyrene as the surface group, and their role as an additive in the redox couple of dye-sensitized solar cells, is described. The studies yield a promising power conversion efficiency of 5.27% with a short circuit current density of 6.50 mA cm–2, an open circuit voltage of 0.60 V, and a fill factor of 0.54 under 40 mW cm–2 simulated air mass (A.M.) 1.5 illumination. Most importantly, the photocurrent responsivity increases with an increase in the number of pyrene units on the surface.


Author(s):  
Edwin Peng ◽  
Halil Berberoglu

This paper reports the temperature and irradiance dependence of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) with acetonitrile-based electrolytes. The prototyped DSSCs had nanocrystalline titanium dioxide photoanodes and platinum thin film cathode. The photoanodes were sensitized with N-749 dye. The current-voltage characteristics of the DSSCs were measured at temperatures from 5 to 50 °C and under 500, 1000, and 1500 W m−2 irradiance. The open circuit voltage, VOC, decreased linearly with increasing temperature and had positive, logarithmic relation with irradiance. At temperatures lower than 15 °C, short circuit current density, JSC, was limited by the diffusion of I3− in the electrolyte and increased with increasing temperature. At higher temperatures the recombination of electrons injected into the TiO2 conduction band was dominant over diffusion and JSC decreased with increasing temperature. Moreover, JSC increaed linearly with increasing irradiance. The DSSC photoconversion efficiency did not vary appreciably at temperatures lower than 15 °C but decreased with increasing temperature. Finally, the efficiency increased with increasing irradiance.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ru-Yuan Yang ◽  
Huang-Yu Chen ◽  
Fu-Der Lai

We investigated the change of the electric characteristics in dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) when the electrolyte has been injected and measured initially and lately for a period of time. It was found that the short-circuit current density decreased from 9.799 mA/cm2to 7.056 mA/cm2and the fill factor increased from 0.406 to 0.559 when the cell had stood for an hour, while the open-circuit photovoltage did not change due to fixed difference between the Fermi level of TiO2and the oxidation-reduction potential of electrolyte. The results can be explained by using the variation of the series resistance in the equivalent circuit of the DSSC.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kawtar Belrhiti Alaoui ◽  
Saida Laalioui ◽  
Badr Ikken ◽  
Abdelkader Outzourhit

In this work, a detailed description of the various steps involved in the fabrication of high-efficiency hydrogenated amorphous-silicon cells using plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition, and a novel shadow masking technique is presented. The influence of the different masking methods on the cell parameters was experimentally investigated. Particularly, the short-circuit current density (Jsc), the fill factor, the open circuit voltage (Voc), and the resistive losses indicated by the shunt (Rsh) and series (Rs) resistances were measured in order to assess the performance of the cells as a function of the masks used during the cell fabrication process. The results indicate that the use of a masking technique where the p-i-n structure was first deposited over the whole surface of a 20 cm2 × 20 cm2 substrate, followed by the deposition, deposits the back contact through a metal mask, and by the ultrasonic soldering of indium to access the front contact is a good alternative to laser scribing in the laboratory scale. Indeed, a record efficiency of 8.8%, with a short-circuit current density (Jsc) of 15.6 mA/cm2, an open-circuit voltage (Voc) of 0.8 V, and a fill factor of 66.07% and low resistive losses were obtained by this technique. Furthermore, a spectroscopic ellipsometry investigation of the uniformity of the film properties (thickness, band gap, and refractive index) on large-area substrates, which is crucial to mini-module fabrication on a single substrate and for heterojunction development, was performed using the optimal cell deposition recipes. It was found that the relative variations of the band gap, thickness, and refractive index n are less than 1% suggesting that the samples are uniform over the 20 cm2 × 20 cm2 substrate area used in this work.


2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sungho Woo ◽  
Hong-Kun Lyu ◽  
Yoon Soo Han ◽  
Youngkyoo Kim

Here we report the influences of the sheet resistance (Rsheet) of a hole-collecting electrode (indium tin oxide, ITO) and the conductivity of a hole-collecting buffer layer (poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate), PEDOT:PSS) on the device performance of flexible plastic organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices. The series resistance (RS) of OPV devices steeply increases with increasingRsheetof the ITO electrode, which leads to a significant decrease of short-circuit current density (JSC) and fill factor (FF) and power conversion efficiency, while the open-circuit voltage (VOC) was almost constant. By applying high-conductivity PEDOT:PSS, the efficiency of OPV devices with highRsheetvalues of 160 Ω/□ and 510 Ω/□ is greatly improved, by a factor of 3.5 and 6.5, respectively. These results indicate that the conductivities of ITO and PEDOT:PSS will become more important to consider for manufacturing large-area flexible plastic OPV modules.


2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 816-823 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Khalid Hossain ◽  
M.F. Pervez ◽  
S. Tayyaba ◽  
M. Jalal Uddin ◽  
A.A. Mortuza ◽  
...  

Abstract Efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) depends on several interrelated factors such as type and concentration of dye, type and thickness of photoelectrode and counter electrode. Optimized combination of these factors leads to a more efficient cell. This paper presents the effect of these parameters on cell efficiency. TiO2 nanoporous thin films of different thicknesses (5 μm to 25 μm) were fabricated on indium doped tin oxide (ITO) coated glass by doctor blading method and characterized by inverted microscope, stylus surface profiler and scanning electron microscope (SEM). Natural organic dye of different concentrations, extracted from turmeric, was prepared with ethanol solvent. Different combinations of dye concentrations and film thicknesses along with different types of carbon catalyst have been investigated by I-V characterization. The result shows that the cell made of a counter electrode catalyst material prepared by candle flame carbon combined with about 15 μm thick photoelectrode and 100 mg/mL dye in ethanol solvent, achieves the highest efficiency of 0.45 %, with open circuit voltage of 566 mV and short circuit current density of 1.02 mA/cm2.


2014 ◽  
Vol 602-603 ◽  
pp. 888-892
Author(s):  
Yan Xiang Wang ◽  
Yu Hong Ye ◽  
Jian Sun

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanotubes film was deposited on conducting glass oxide (FTO) by using ZnO nanorods as template, and the TiO2nanotubes film was applied in DSCs. First, ZnO nanorods were fabricated on ZnO-doped TiO2seed layer coated substrates by the hydrothermal method. Second, the obtained ZnO nanorods were used as a template to synthesize ZnOTiO2coreshell structure through the immersion method. Third, the ZnO nanorods template was removed by etching method to obtained TiO2nanotubes film. The thickness of ZnO-doped TiO2seed layer is about 200nm and the crystalline size of nanoparticles are about 5~10nm. The length of the ZnO nanorods are about 1~3μm. The TiO2nanotube was composed of TiO2nanoparticles. The short-circuit current density (Jsc), open-circuit voltage, fill factor (FF) and efficiency of TiO2nanotubes DSC were 4.63 mA·cm-2, 0.74V, 62% and 2.15%, respectively.


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