Analysis of Catalytic Material Effect on the Photovoltaic Properties of Monolithic Dye-sensitized Solar Cells

Abstract

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) are widely developed due to their attractive appearance and simple fabrication processes. One of the challenges that arise in the DSSC fabrication involves high material cost associated with the cost of conductive substrate. DSSC with monolithic configuration was then developed on the basis of this motivation. In this contribution, titanium dioxide-based monolithic type DSSCs were fabricated on a single fluorine-doped transparent oxide coated glass using porous ZrO2 as spacer. Herein, the catalytic material for the counter-electrode was varied using carbon composite and platinum in order to analyze their effect on the solar cell efficiency. Four-point probe measurement revealed that the carbon composite exhibited slightly higher conductivity with a sheet resistance of 9.8 Ω/sq and 10.9 Ω/sq for carbon and platinum, respectively. Likewise, the photoconversion efficiency of the monolithic cells with carbon counter-electrode almost doubled the efficiency of the cells with platinum counter-electrode. Our results demonstrate that carbon could outperform the performance of platinum as catalytic material in monolithic DSSC.

Modifications of Liquid Electrolyte for Monolithic Dye-sensitized Solar Cells

“…For the counter electrode material, carbon was preferred since it showed better performance compared to platinum when used in monolithic DSSC according to our previous report [21]. Carbon was directly applied on the photoelectrode side, partially right on the ZrO2 layer and the remaining layers were crossed over the other FTO area.…”

“…There are some factors that can be argued related to these results. First, the manual design of monolithic cells in planar architecture is likely considered as the cause of imperfect contact between the electrodes [21], which can contribute to charge recombination. The existence of spacer layer can also become the contributing factor for the low value possibly due to its inappropriate thickness, which potentially could promote recombination between the photogenerated electrons in semiconductor and holes in the electrolyte [23].…”

A Comparison of the Utilization of Carbon Nanopowder and Activated Carbon as Counter Electrode for Monolithic Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSC)

“…V OC values play a significant role in the process of charge injection in cells in the DSSC. Almost half the energy of photons lost in the cell due to dye regeneration [7]. In Table 3, the activated carbon has a higher V OC value compared to V OC carbon nanopowder.…”

“…In addition, carbon also has corrosion-resistant properties and has good electro-catalytic ability [6]. Furthermore, our previous result showed that carbon produced better performance than sputtered platinum when applied as the counter electrode in monolithic DSSC [7]. In particular, carbon nanopowder and activated carbon will be compared.…”

Analysis of Thermal Treatment Zirconia as Spacer Layer on Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell (DSSC) Performance with Monolithic Structure

“…Therefore, the research on monolithic DSSC is still wide open to obtain optimal performance. The previous study reported that the thickness of both spacer and counterelectrode materials have significant effects on the performance of monolithic DSSC [11].…”