Aqueous p-type dye-sensitized solar cells based on a cobalt(II)/(III) redox mediator

Wanchun Xiang^a^,^b, Leone Spiccia^b, Udo Bach^c

^aState Key Laboratory of Silicate Materials for Architecture, Wuhan University of Technology, 122 Luoshi Rd, Wuhan, 430070, China

^bMonash University, AU, Calyton, 3800, Australia

^cMonash University, Department of Materials Engineering, Australia, Clayton VIC 3800, Australia, Clayton, Australia

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, Wanchun Xiang, 150
Publication date: 5th February 2015

In spite of high efficient dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs),¹the usage of organic solvents is a problem not only because easy evaporation but, more importantly, their toxicity. Water as an earth-abundant resource and clean solvent is an ideal candidate for the preparation of the electrolytes. After the successful development of aqueous n-type DSCs with more than 5% efficiency,² a more promising DSC based on an aqueous gel electrolyte was developed with comparable efficiency of 4% and much better stability. A dramatic improved efficiency of 5.6% was achieved by applying silane capping technique in the solar cell fabrication due to both increase of open circuit voltage and short circuit current.³ To present less efforts have been made to develop p-type DSCs, even though they can be applied in the construction of tandem DSCs, which could be a good route to high efficiency solar energy conversion at low cost. We have developed an aqueous p-type DSCs based on the tris(1,2-diaminoethane) cobalt(II/III) redox mediator in conjugation with PMI-6T-TPA sensitizer. By controlling the pH in electrolyte, efficiency of 1.6% can be achieved under simulatedAM1.5 solar irradiation, which is higher than the reported efficiency for p-type DSCs using the same redox mediator and organic electrolyte.⁴
Figure 1 J-V curve for p-type DSCs based on PMI-6T-TPA sensitizer and [Co(en)3]3+/2+ electrolyte (pH=10)
[1] Mathew S.;Nazeeruddin M. K.;Gratzel M.Dye-sensitized solar cells with 13% efficiency achieved through the molecular engineering ofporphyrin sensitizers.Nat. Chem. 2014, 6, 242-247. [2]Xiang W.; Huang F.;Cheng Y.;Bach U.;Spiccia L.Aqueous dye-sensitized solar cell electrolytes based onthe cobalt(II)/(III) tris(bipyridine) redox couple. Energy. Environ. Sci.2013, 6, 121-127. [3]Dong C.;Xiang W.;Huang F.;Fu D.;Bach U.;Cheng Y.;Li X.; Spiccia L.Controlling interfacial recombination in aqueous dye-sensitized solar cells by octadecyltrichlorosilane surface treatment. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.2014, 53, 6933-6937. [4] Powar S., Daeneke T., Spiccia L. and Bach U., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2012, 51, 1-5.

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