Design of Hybrid Nanoheterostructure Systems for Enhanced Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Bayram Kilic^a, Volkan Celik^b

^aYalova University, Engineering Faculty, Department of Energy Systems Engineering 77100 Yalova

^bYalova University, Engineering Faculty, Department of Energy Systems Engineering 77100 Yalova

International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics
Proceedings of International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics 2015 (HOPV15)

Roma, Italy, 2015 May 11th - 13th

Organizer: Filippo De Angelis

Poster, Bayram Kilic, 017
Publication date: 5th February 2015

Dye Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSCs) with an innovative design involving controlled-morphology vertically aligned (VA) ZnO nanowire within TiO₂ mesoporus structures with ultrahigh surface area is reported for implementation as photoanode. Although excellent power conversion efficiency is exhibited by TiO₂ nanostructures, the electron transport rate is known to be low due to low electron mobility. To overcome this, ZnO nanowires with high electron mobility have been investigated as potential candidates for photoanodes. However, power conversion efficiency of ZnO nanowires is still lower than TiO₂ due to low internal surface area. Consequently, vertical growth of ZnO nanowires within mesoporous TiO₂ structures is introduced in order to increase solar power conversion efficiency. Photovoltaic performance of solar cells made using ZnO nanowire, TiO₂ mesoporous and TiO₂/ZnO hybrid structures are compared to each other. The experiments demonstrate that the VA TiO₂/ZnO hybrid structures can provide a direct electron transfer resulting in increased conversion efficiency comparedto the tortuous pathway ofzero-dimensional nanostructures.It has been demonstrated that the light scattering of the photoanode film is increased and the electron recombination is decreased when appropriate amount of mesoporous TiO₂ is used as substrate underneath ZnO nanowires. The DSSC fabricated with the TiO₂/ZnO hybrid photoanode prepared with 15.8 wt% of TiO₂ showed the highest conversion efficiency of 7.30 %, which was approximately 5 %, 18% and 40% higher than that of DSSC fabricated with 3.99 Wt% of TiO₂, pure TiO₂ and pure ZnO photoanode, respectively.
Figure 1. Schematic demonstration of electron (e-) diffuse transport behaviors in a) conventional TiO2 mesoporous structures b) mesoporous/nanowires-network hybrid electrode, Block diagram and photoelectron collection mechanisms of, Energy level diagrams of photoanodes1-4 c) bare TiO2 mesoporous d) TiO2/ZnO hybrid structures e) Current density-voltage (J-V) characteristics of dye-sensitized solar cell for cells based N719 dye with a film thickness about 16 µm, measured under AM 1.5G solar irradiance (100mW/cm2),
[1] B. O'Regan, M. Grätzel, Nature 353, 737–740 (1991). [2] T.B. Guo, Y.Q. Chen, L.Z. Liu, Y.F. Cheng, X.H. Zhang, Q. Li, M.Q. Wei, B.J. Ma, J. Power Sourch. 201, 408-412 (2012). [3]. F. Li, G. Wang, Y. Jiao, J. Li, S. Xie, J. Alloys and Comp. 611, 19-23 (2014). [4] S. Zhu, L. Shan, X. Tian, X. Zheng, D. Sun, X. Liu, L. Wang, Z. Zhou, Ceramics Inter. 40, 11663-11670 (2014).

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