Dye-sensitized nanocrystalline solar cells based on composite polymer electrolytes containing fumed silica nanoparticles

Direct evidence of the effects of the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) of gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) in TiO 2 photoanodes on the performance enhancement in quasi-solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) is reported by comparing gold/silica core-shell nanoparticles (Au@SiO 2 NPs) and hollow silica nanoparticles with the same shell size of the core-shell nanoparticles. The Au nanoparticles were shelled by a thin SiO 2 layer to produce the core-shell structure, and the SiO 2 hollow spheres were made by dissolving the Au cores of the gold/silica core-shell nanoparticles. Therefore, the size and morphology of the SiO 2 hollow spheres were the same as the Au@SiO 2 NPs. The energy conversion efficiency was improved nearly 36% upon incorporating the Au nanoparticles, mostly due to the increase in J sc , while V oc and FF were unchanged. The improvement was mostly contributed by the LSPR of the Au@SiO 2 NPs, whereas the other parameters, such as the electron lifetime and electron diffusion coefficient, were nearly unchanged. Therefore, LSPR is an effective tool in improving the photocurrent and consequently the performance of DSCs.

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“…The composition of [-O-]-[MPII]-[I 2 ] was 10 : 1 : 0.1, and the silica NPs were 9 wt% of the total polymer electrolyte. 31 …”

Section: Device Fabricationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plasmon-enhanced photocurrent in quasi-solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells by the inclusion of gold/silica core–shell nanoparticles in a TiO2 photoanode

et al. 2013

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“…The concept of dyesensitized solar cells (DSSCs) is well thought-out as a low-cost alternative to traditional silicon-based cells 1,2 . The essential principle involved in the energy conversion of DSSCs contains injection of electrons from the excited state of dye molecules into conduction band of TiO 2 semiconductor material whereas charge transport in these liquid electrolytes is accomplished by using an organic solvent containing I -/I 3 -redox couple 3 and these liquid electrolytes exhibit higher energy conversion efficiency of 11% as reported earlier by Gratzel in the year 1991 1 . The usage of liquid electrolytes accomplishes several practical problems such as solvent evaporation, electrolyte leakage, temperature instability and toxicity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 78%

A Novel Solid State Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell Containing PMMA/PVDF- Type Blended Polymer Electrolyte

2013

Chem Sci Trans

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Development of nanocrystalline TiO 2 dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) consisting of KI and I 2 as redox couple, phenothiazine (PTZ) as an additive dissolved in a blended solid polymer electrolytic medium of polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) in conjunction with polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) has been reported. The effect of incorporation of PTZ within the PMMA/PVDF/KI/I 2 electrolyte system has been investigated in terms of important parameters such as fill-factor (ff), shortcircuit current density (J sc ), open-circuit photovoltage (V oc ) and solar radiation to electrical energy conversion efficiency (η) of the DSSC while their optimized values are found to be 0.5, 5.8 mA/cm 2 , 820 mV and 4.8% respectively.

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“…Polymer-based DSSCs are one kind of popular quasi-solid-state DSSCs owing to their excellent characteristics such as easy fabrication, low cost, good stability, and flexibility. [14][15][16][17][18][19][20] Although scattering layer is not usually applied in such cells due to the reduction of electron transport, our findings show that adding a scattering layer of large TiO 2 nanoparticles in a polymer-based quasi-solid-state DSSCs could form scattering layer/polymer matrix structure for energy storage. There was no additional structure for energy storage on the CE of such PSC.…”

mentioning

confidence: 94%

Scattering-layer-induced energy storage function in polymer-based quasi-solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells

Zhang

Jiang

2015

Applied Physics Letters

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Photo-self-charging cells (PSCs) are compact devices with dual functions of photoelectric conversion and energy storage. By introducing a scattering layer in polymer-based quasi-solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells, two-electrode PSCs with highly compact structure were obtained. The charge storage function stems from the formed ion channel network in the scattering layer/polymer electrolyte system. Both the photoelectric conversion and the energy storage functions are integrated in only the photoelectrode of such PSCs. This design of PSC could continuously output power as a solar cell with considerable efficiency after being photo-charged. Such PSCs could be applied in highly-compact mini power devices. V C 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.[http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4914585] Hybridization of photoelectric conversion and energy storage functions in devices has attracted great attentions in recent years due to the increasing demand of renewable energy around the world and the miniaturization and multifunctionalization in electronics industry.1-13 Typically, such photo-self-charging cells (PSCs) consist of two independent sections, a solar cell and a supercapacitor/lithium ion battery. Thus, there were three electrodes in these PSCs.1-7 Another type of PSCs could be regarded as simplex devices, since they contain only two electrodes: One is for solar energy conversion (photoelectrode) and the other is for energy storage (counter electrode, CE). [8][9][10][11][12][13] Traditional two-electrode PSCs could not provide continuous power output after being fully charged under steady illumination, since the photogenerated charges are depleted to charge the energy storage section. [8][9][10] In our previous work, a new type of twoelectrode PSC based on dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) was reported with both good photo-to-electric conversion efficiency (g) and energy storage capacity via introducing composited ZnO/polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) nanostructure in CE. 12 The polymer/nanostructured oxide system could possess energy storage capability while allowing the passage of carriers through the structure. The energy storage performance of PSCs depends heavily on the functionalization of CEs. So far, all PSCs rely on functionalized CEs for energy storage. In this study, we realized even more compact two-electrode PSCs by integrating both the solar energy conversion and the energy storage functions to the photoelectrode. Polymer-based DSSCs are one kind of popular quasi-solid-state DSSCs owing to their excellent characteristics such as easy fabrication, low cost, good stability, and flexibility.14-20 Although scattering layer is not usually applied in such cells due to the reduction of electron transport, our findings show that adding a scattering layer of large TiO 2 nanoparticles in a polymer-based quasi-solid-state DSSCs could form scattering layer/polymer matrix structure for energy storage. There was no additional structure for energy storage on the CE of such PSC. Experimental results showed that such PSC could operate a...

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Dye-sensitized nanocrystalline solar cells based on composite polymer electrolytes containing fumed silica nanoparticles

Abstract: We report remarkably high energy conversion efficiency (4.5% at 100 mW cm(-2)) of a dye-sensitized solar cell in the solid state, using composite polymer electrolytes containing fumed silica nanoparticles.

Cited by 219 publications

References 15 publications

Plasmon-enhanced photocurrent in quasi-solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells by the inclusion of gold/silica core–shell nanoparticles in a TiO2 photoanode

Plasmon-enhanced photocurrent in quasi-solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells by the inclusion of gold/silica core–shell nanoparticles in a TiO2 photoanode

A Novel Solid State Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell Containing PMMA/PVDF- Type Blended Polymer Electrolyte

Scattering-layer-induced energy storage function in polymer-based quasi-solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells

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