Nanocrystalline TiO2 amphoteric colloidal charged particles and polyelectrolytes have been used to
fabricate a dye-sensitized solar cell. Two weak polyelectrolytes, poly(allylamine hydrochloride) and poly(acrylic acid), and two strong polyelectrolytes, poly(dimethyldiallylammonium chloride) (PDAC) and poly(sodium 4-styrenesulfonate), have been utilized to assemble polyion/TiO2 nanocomposite multilayered
films by the electrostatic layer-by-layer deposition technique. The layer-by-layer assembly of the TiO2
nanoparticles proceeds linearly as shown by sequential UV−vis absorption and thickness measurements.
The morphology of these assemblies was characterized using atomic force microscopy. The nanoporous
polyion/TiO2 films were sintered and used as working electrodes for cis-di(thiocyanato)-N,N-bis(2,2‘-bipyridyldicarboxylate)-ruthenium(II) (N3) sensitized solar cells. I−V characteristics of the solar cells
made by the calcinated polyelectrolyte/TiO2 electrodes show several interesting results. (i) The short-circuit current does not linearly increase with the thickness of the TiO2 electrode, even though the adsorption
behavior of the N3 dye shows a linear increase. (ii) The precursor polyelectrolytes used to assemble TiO2
play a major role in the photovoltaic performance of the solar cells. Thermogravimetric analysis studies
show that the thermal stability of the polyelectrolytes may have a direct effect on the overall device
efficiency. (iii) The photovoltaic performance of these solar cells is comparable to that of cells made by other
methods such as spin casting, the layer-by-layer technique offers unsurpassed control in manipulating the
final device thickness. An efficiency of 7.2% was obtained for the solar cell made from PDAC/TiO2 (200
bilayers) precursor film, under 1 sun at simulated Air Mass 1.5 direct irradiation.
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