Porous Counter Electrode for Monolithic Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells Under Dim-light Applications

Yu-Chiung Lin^a, Pei-Ying Lin^a, Chao-Yu Chen^a^,^b^,^c

^aDepartment of Photonics, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 701, Taiwan, ROC.

^bHierarchical Green-Energy Materials (Hi-GEM) Research Center, National Cheng Kung University, 70101 Tainan, Taiwan, ROC

^cDivision Director of Education & Research Center for Micro/Nano Science and Technology (CMNST), National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan, Tainan, Taiwan, Republic of China

Asia-Pacific International Conference on Perovskite, Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics
Proceedings of International Conference on Perovskite and Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics (IPEROP19)

Kyōto-shi, Japan, 2019 January 27th - 29th

Organizers: Hideo Ohkita, Atsushi Wakamiya and Mohammad Nazeeruddin

Poster, Yu-Chiung Lin, 122
Publication date: 23rd October 2018

The general monolithic dye-sensitized solar cells (M-DSCs) constructed on a single conductive substrate with a triple-layer structure, comprising of a nanoporous working electrode layer, an insulating layer, and a porous counter electrode layer. Carbon is the most common counter electrode for M-DSCs application, which needs a thicker thickness for better electrical conductivity [1-3]. However, over-thick carbon restricts the carrier transportation so in this study we deposit Au metal on the substrate with thermal evaporation and anneal in the ambient environment to create porous structure as a p-type CE. The electrolyte Cu^(II/I)(dmby)₂TFSI_2/1redox mediators in acetonitrile (ACN) solvent with Y123 organic dye. The lower dielectric constant SiO₂ was introduced as the insulating layer to reduce the interface polarization and effectively separate electrons and holes [4-6]. We compare the devices performance for different particle sizes of commercial SiO₂. In our result, the series resistance reduced as SiO₂ layer thickness decreased in smaller particle size (IPA-ST-L, 40-50nm) case, in contrast, series resistance reduced as SiO₂ layer thickness increased in larger particle size (IPA-ST-ZL, 70-100nm) case. By optimization the device achieved a PCE of 12.6% in the active area 1cm² under the dim-light (200lux) condition.

References:

[1] Kay, Andreas, and Michael Grätzel, “Low cost photovoltaic modules based on dye sensitized nanocrystalline titanium dioxideand carbon powder”, Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, Volume 44, Issue 1, pp 99-117 (1996)

[2] Hongwei Han, Udo Bach, Yi-Bing Cheng, Rachel A. Caruso, and Colin MacRae, “A design for monolithic all-solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells with a platinized carbon counter electrode”, Applied Physics Letters, Volume 94, (2009)

[3] Guanghui, LiuHengWang, XiongLi, YaoguangRong, ZhiliangKu, MiXuLinfengLiu, MinHu, YingYang, PengXiang, TingShu, HongweiHan “A mesoscopic platinized graphite/carbon black counter electrode for a highly efficient monolithic dye-sensitized solar cell”, Electrochimica Acta, Volume 69, pp 334-339 (2012)

[4] Ting Wu, Yu-Che Hsiao, Mingxing Li, Nam-Goo Kang, Jimmy W. Mays, and Bin Hu. “Dynamic Coupling between Electrode Interface and Donor/Acceptor Interface via Charge Dissociation in Organic Solar Cells at Device-Operating Condition”, J. Phys. Chem. C, 119 (5), pp 2727–2732 (2015)

[5] Qian Zhang, Bin Kan, Feng Liu, Guankui Long, Xiangjian Wan, Xiaoqing Chen, Yi Zuo, Wang Ni, Huijing Zhang, Miaomiao Li, Zhicheng Hu, Fei Huang, Yong Cao, Ziqi Liang, Mingtao Zhang, Thomas P. Russell Yongsheng Chen “Small-molecule solar cells with efficiency over 9%”, Nature Photonics, Volume9, pp35–41 (2015)

[6] Zhicai He, Biao Xiao, Feng Liu, Hongbin Wu, Yali Yang, Steven Xiao, Cheng Wang, Thomas P. Russell, Yong Cao “Single-junction polymer solar cells with high efficiency and photovoltage”, Nature Photonics volume9, pp174–179 (2015)

Acknowledgements:

The authors are grateful to the financial support from the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST 107-2221-E-006-190-MY3 and MOST 107-2119-M-006-002).

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