Proceedings of 6th International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics (HOPV14)
Publication date: 1st March 2014
The dye-sensitized solar cell (DSC) has been a promising candidate for low cost photovoltaics since its breakthrough over 20 years ago [1]. Recently efficiencies exceeding 12.3% have been achieved using a Co(II/III) tris(bipyridyl) based electrolyte co-sensitized with a D-π-A zinc-porphryin and Y123 dye [2]. Currently the laboratory method for DSC fabrication is lengthy and involves a series of time intensive processes. For example, the two key heat treatment stages (TiO2 sintering and thermal platinisation) typically take 1 hour and the dyeing can take up to 16 hours. This is not feasible on an industrial scale and can lead to critical bottlenecks in the manufacturing process.
To address the long heating times an alternative heating method, Near Infrared (NIR) radiation, is proposed. NIR heating involves exposing a substrate with radiation, predominately between the wavelengths of 800 and 1500 nm, which transmits through the coating and is absorbed by the substrate rapidly releasing high thermal energy. NIR has been previously used to successfully sinter TiO2 onto titanium substrates [3] in only 12.5 sec due to metal’s absorption in the NIR region. However a metal working electrode restricts the cell to reverse illumination reducing the efficiency. The most widely used and highest performing substrate for DSCs is fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) coated glass. Due to the heavily doped nature of FTO it absorbs in the NIR and IR region which results in it reaching significantly higher temperatures when exposed to NIR radiation than uncoated soda glass.
This localised ultrafast heating was employed here to demonstrate both thermal decomposition of hexachloroplatinic acid hydrate to catalytic platinum and the sintering of TiO2 films with 12.5 sec NIR exposure. With optimal NIR lamp intensity both achieved equal efficiency when assembled into DSCs compared to conventionally heated devices, with heating times 144 faster.
Each step of the laboratory manufacturing process was evaluated and the best case scenario time for a conventional DSC estimated to be 123 min. In stark contrast the rapid heating of the working electrode and counter electrode was combined with a rapid pump dyeing technique [4] to construct DSCs in less than 5 min. This achieved an efficiency 90% that of a conventional cell and was produced 24 times faster. These developments suggest that the manufacture of a dye-sensitized solar cell is suitable for industrial scale high throughput manufacture.
IV curves for a conventional DSC device and a 5 min DSC device with all fast processing (NIR heating and pump dyeing), (inset) table of IV parameters and photograph of 5 min cell
[1] O’Regan, B.; Grätzel, M. A low-cost, high-efficiency solar cell based on dye-sensitized colloidal TiO2 films. Nature 1991, 353, 737–740 [2] Yella, A.; Lee, H.-W.; Tsao, H. N.; Yi, C.; Chandiran, A. K.; Nazeeruddin, M. K.; Diau, E. W.-G.; Yeh, C.-Y.; Zakeeruddin, S. M.; Grätzel, M. Porphyrin-sensitized solar cells with cobalt (II/III)-based redox electrolyte exceed 12 percent efficiency. Science 2011, 334, 629–634 [3] Watson, T.; Mabbett, I.; Wang, H.; Peter, L.; Worsley, D. Ultrafast near infrared sintering of TiO2 layers on metal substrates for dye-sensitized solar cells. Prog. Photovoltaics Res. Appl. 2010, 19, 482–486 [4] Holliman, P.J.; Davies, M.L.; Connell, A.; Vaca Velasco, B.; Watson, T.M. Ultra-fast dye sensitisation and co-sensitisation for dye sensitized solar cells Chemical communications 2010, 46, 7256–7258
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