Fabrication of working and counter electrodes on plastic substrates for flexible dye-sensitized solar cells

Abstract

Abstract. This paper presents the fabrication technologies related to flexible titanium-dioxide (TiO 2 ) working electrodes and graphite counter electrodes on plastic substrates for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The DSSC on a plastic substrate had a sandwich structure consisting of a TiO 2 working electrode, an electrolyte, and a graphite counter electrode. Nano-crystalline TiO 2 powder, titanium (IV) bis (ammonium lactato) dihydroxide (TALH), de-ionized water (DI water), and Triton X-100 were added to the mixture of PDMS base and curing agents to form TiO 2 colloids for the TiO 2 working electrode. The material analysis of the TiO 2 working electrode and the graphite counter electrode employed field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Nano-crystalline TiO 2 powder was used to form the TiO 2 working electrode. The surface characteristics of the TiO 2 and graphite films were investigated herein. The low-cost fabrication technologies of the TiO 2 working electrode and graphite counter electrode on the plastic substrate were clearly demonstrated.

Review: Low Temperature Sintering of TiO2 for Dye Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSCs) Fabrication on Flexible Substrates

“…The mechanism of DSSC is basically on the processes of photoelectrochemical system, which include photoexcitation, electron injection, oxidation, and reduction, as follows (Lai et al, 2017):…”