Application of Micro-Metal Textile for Flexible Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell

Abstract

As a means to make a flexible dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC), we prepared a TiO2 electrode by using a micro-metal textile made from Sn-plated Cu wires, and examined applicability of the micro-metal textile as a substrate for the electrode. The TiO2 electrodes were prepared successfully by painting a TiO2 paste to the textile using a squeegee method followed by sintering at 500 °C, and the electrodes showed no exfoliation of the TiO2 layer from the textile even when the electrode was bent to a cylindrical shape with 10-mm diameter. The solar cells constructed with these electrodes, on which N3 dye was adsorbed as a sensitizer, exhibited actually a photovoltaic performance. The results indicated the applicability of the micro-metal textile as the flexible substrate for the TiO2 electrode producing an efficient flexible DSSC.

Study of the Chemical Adsorption Property of Allylsilylazobenzene in the Surface Modification of Nanoporous Alumina Membrane

“…Organosilicon compounds such as silanols [R 4-n Si(OH) n ], chlorosilanes (R 4-n SiCl n ), and alkoxysilanes [R 4-n Si(OR') n ; R' = Me, Et] are well known to have high bonding ability to the surfaces of various metal oxides by forming stable Si-O-metal bonds [1][2][3][4][5], and the chemical surface modifications of metal oxides using them are commonly called as silane coupling treatments. The treatments can give functional properties to the metal-oxide surfaces, for example, of molecular-selective adsorption, light absorption, water repellence, adhesive properties to organic compounds, and thus the organosilicon compounds are widely used as surface modifiers of metal oxides for producing organic-inorganic hybrid materials [3,[6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. However, those organosilicon compounds are generally reactive toward the decomposition by hydrolysis and condensation and can be hardly handled under hydrolytic conditions and refined by using silica gel column chromatography [3,[6][7][8].…”