Calibration Procedure for a Dye-sensitized Solar Cell with a Slow Response Time

Harald Müllejans^a, Tony Sample^a, Giorgio Bardizza^a, Diego Pavanello^a

^aEuropean Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), Via Enrico Fermi, 2749, Ispra (Va), Italy

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, Giorgio Bardizza, 120
Publication date: 5th February 2015

The rapid development of dye-sensitized and perovskite solar cells performances and the related growing interest in these emerging PV technologies [1,2,3] clearly indicate the need for methods and procedures to reliably measure and characterize PV devices known to possess a slow response time for photocurrent generation by incident light. Electrical power measurements under standard testing conditions (STC), as defined in the IEC-60904 series of standards can only be accurately made if sufficient time is allowed to complete photocurrent generation. This time is usually much longer for dye-sensitized and perovskite devices than for typical crystalline silicon [4, 5]. The long response time of these devices to the light affects both spectral responsivity measurements and power measurements [6, 7] resulting in unreliable results, if the measurement time does not take the slow response of the device into account. Moreover different devices can show different response time, i.e. a procedure valid for standard dye-sensitized devices with a liquid electrolyte could be inappropriate for dye-sensitized devices with a solid holes transport material or a perovskite device. In this work we propose a procedure for precise calibration of slow responding PV devices which allows for a precise evaluation of their response time and, consequently, for a reliable calibration fulfilling all requirements specified in the standards. The spectral responsivity apparatus available at ESTI to work at low chopping frequency (≤1Hz) has been already described in detail [8]. The I-V characterization requires measurements to be performed at different sweep times and sweep directions. Comparing these two measurements a reliable evaluation of the appropriate sweep time for I-V characterization is determined. Combining SR measurements with correct I/V determination yields to a reliable calibration of the device. The proposed procedure has been applied at ESTI for the calibration of a dye-sensitized solar cell with a liquid electrolyte under STC. The spectral responsivity measurement was performed for mismatch factor (MMF) calculation. Consequently MMF and irradiance corrections have been applied to the measured I-V curves following IEC-60904 and IEC-60891 resulting in a complete calibration of the device.
Normalized (to low-frequency) amplitude variation of the peak-to-peak photocurrent signals of a c-Si and a DSSC devices illuminated by chopped white light at different chopping frequencies (TOP) and electrical parameters evolution calculated from I-V curves measured at different sweep times (BOTTOM). Three I-V curves performed at different sweep times and both sweep directions, from Isc to Voc (FWD) and from Voc to Isc (BKWD), are reported in graphs (RIGHT) and show a hysteresis which decreases at larger sweep time as expected.
[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] Koide, N; Yamanaka, R; Katayama, H. Recent Advances of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells and Integrated Modules at SHARP. MRS Proceedings 2009, 1211:1211, R12-02. [3] Green, MA; Emery, K; Hishikawa, Y; Warta, W; Dunlop, ED. Solar cell efficiency tables (version 44). Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications 2014, 22, 701-710. [4] Sommeling, PM; Rieffe, HC; Kroon, JM; van Roosmalen, JAM; Schönecker, A; Sinke, WC. Spectral response and response time of nanocrystalline dye-sensitized TiO2 solar cells. Proceeding of the 14th EUPVSEC 1997, 1816. [5] Schwarzburg, K; Willig, F. Influence of trap filling on photocurrent transients in polycrystalline TiO2. Applied Physics Letters 1991, 58, 2520-2522. [6] Takagi, K; Magaino, S; Saito, H; Aoki, T; Aoki, D. Measurements and evaluation of dye-sensitized solar cell performance. Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology C: Photochemistry Reviews 2013, 14, 1-12. [7] Snaith, HJ; Abate, A; Ball, JM; Eperon, GE; Leijtens, T; Noel, NK; Stranks, SD; Tse-Wei Wang, J; Wojciechowski, K; Zhang, W. Anomalous Hysteresis in Perovskite Solar Cells. Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters 2014, 5(9), 1511-1515. [8] Bardizza, G; Pavanello, D; Müllejans, H; Sample, T. Spectral responsivity measurements of DSSC devices at low chopping frequency (1Hz). Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications 2014, (DOI: 10.1002/pip.2558).

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