Initial Performance of Dye Solar Cells on Stainless Steel Substrates

Miettunen, Kati; Halme, Janne; Toivola, Minna; Lund, Peter

doi:10.1021/jp7112957

Cited by 58 publications

(119 citation statements)

References 28 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

111

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In the case of thermal Pt cells, the high frequency peak corresponds to the charge transfer at the counter electrode and the low frequency peak to the charge transfer at the photoelectrode [12][13][14][15]. Contrary to that in the case of porous carbon electrodes, the response of the charge transfer at the counter electrode is actually at low frequencies, around 1 Hz [9].…”

Section: Electrochemical Performancementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Electrochemical Performancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The comparison of the counter electrode responses of the different cells is straightforward when using the same current in the measurements (at OC current is z e r o ) [ 1 2 -1 4 ] . C o n v e n i e n t l y , t h e c e l l s g a v e a l s o s i m i l a r v o l t a g e a t O C w h i c h e n a b l e s t h e quantitative comparison of photoelectrode response as well [12,13].As presented in Figure 5a, both carbon gel and thermal Pt based cells show two semicircles in the Nyquist plots and two corresponding peaks in Figure 5b. In the case of thermal Pt cells, the high frequency peak corresponds to the charge transfer at the counter electrode and the low frequency peak to the charge transfer at the photoelectrode [12][13][14][15].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…C o n v e n i e n t l y , t h e c e l l s g a v e a l s o s i m i l a r v o l t a g e a t O C w h i c h e n a b l e s t h e quantitative comparison of photoelectrode response as well [12,13].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Contrary to that in the case of porous carbon electrodes, the response of the charge transfer at the counter electrode is actually at low frequencies, around 1 Hz [9]. The photoelectrode response is at the same frequencies [12][13][14][15], which causes an overlap of these responses. In other words, the charge transfer resistance Rct at the carbon gel counter electrode and the recombination resistance at the photoelectrode RPE form 8 together the large low frequency semicircle (42 Ωcm 2 ) in Figure 5a.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

A carbon gel catalyst layer for the roll-to-roll production of dye solar cells

Miettunen

Toivola

Hashmi

et al. 2011

Carbon

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Carbon gel catalyst layers were used in dye solar cells. These layers were prepared on flexible plastic substrates at low temperatures (130 °C). The carbon gel, demonstrated excellent flexibility which is an important feature for roll-to-roll production and special applications of dye solar cells.The use of these low cost and highly flexible catalyst layers resulted in good photovoltaic performance; only 10 % lower than dye solar cells with rigid glass-based counter electrodes prepared with thermal platinization at ~400 °C temperature. 3 IntroductionNanostructured dye solar cells (DSC) [1] represent a potentially cheap photovoltaics option due to simple manufacturing methods and cheap materials. Traditionally DSC have been prepared on glass substrates equipped with transparent conducting oxide (TCO). Although glass is a good option in terms of performance and stability [2,3], its high cost [4] and preparation limited to batch production motivate to find alternatives. A key issue in the commercialization of the DSC is to use roll-to-roll mass production methods to enable cost-effective solutions. Firstly, flexible substrates such as plastics are needed for roll-to-roll production. Secondly, flexibility of the electrode on top of the substrate is required. For instance Miyasaka et al. have demonstrated flexible photoelectrodes that give good cell efficiency (5.8 %) [5].In this work the focus is on counter electrodes. The main task of a counter electrode is to efficiently return the charge from the counter electrode back to electrolyte. Low charge transfer resistances are reached with Pt catalyst layers which are commonly prepared with a high temperature treatment at 400 °C [6]. To lower the cost, the use of carbon has been introduced [7]. The structures of DSC with Pt and porous carbon catalyst layers are show in Figure 1. To compensate the high charge transfer resistance of carbon, the carbon film is thick, usually around 10-20 μm, in order to have large surface area for the catalyst reaction [7]. To create good bonding between the particles which is needed to get high conductivity in the catalyst film, the layer is normally sintered is heat treated at high temperatures (~450 °C) [7].When flexible plastic substrates are used, low temperature methods (<150 °C) are required. Instead of sintering, low temperature pressing has been employed to get good connection between the particles [8,9]. These low temperature layers have provided low charge transfer resistance 0.5-2Ωcm 2 [9]. There have, however, been problems with the flaking of the catalyst layer and the related 4 poor flexibility [9]. Good flexibility of the counter electrode catalyst layer is, however, essential for roll to roll mass production and also important for special applications.In this work we gelatinize carbon paste and combined it to the previously developed pressing method to produce good adhesion between the particles and achieve sufficient flexibility for roll-toroll production. The inspiration for this work came from our previous stud...

show abstract

Section: Electrochemical Performancementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Electrochemical Performancementioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

A carbon gel catalyst layer for the roll-to-roll production of dye solar cells

Miettunen

Toivola

Hashmi

et al. 2011

Carbon

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Non‐Corrosive, Non‐Absorbing Organic Redox Couple for Dye‐Sensitized Solar Cells

Luo

et al. 2010

Adv Funct Materials

113

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A new colorless electrolyte containing an organic redox couple, tetramethylthiourea (TMTU) and its oxidized dimer tetramethylformaminium disulfide dication ([TMFDS]2+), is applied to dye‐sensitized solar cells (DSCs). Advantages of this redox couple include its non‐corrosive nature, low cost, and easy handling. More impressively, it operates well with carbon electrodes. The DSCs fabricated with a lab‐made HCS‐CB carbon counter‐electrode can present up to 3.1% power conversion efficiency under AM 1.5 illumination of 100 mW·cm−2 and 4.5% under weaker light intensities. This result distinctly outperforms the identical DSCs with a Pt electrode. Corrosive experiments reveal that Al and stainless steel (SS) sheets are stable in the [TMFDS]2+/TMTU‐based electrolyte. Its electrochemical impedance spectrum (EIS) is used to evaluate the influence of different counter‐electrodes on the cell performance, and preliminary investigations reveal that carbon electrodes with large surface areas and ideal corrosion‐inertness toward the sulfur‐containing [TMFDS]2+/TMTU redox couple exhibit promise for application in iodine‐free DSCs.

show abstract

Device Physics of Dye Solar Cells

et al. 2010

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Design of new materials for nanostructured dye solar cells (DSC) requires understanding the link between the material properties and cell efficiency. This paper gives an overview of the fundamental and practical aspects of the modeling and characterization of DSCs, and integrates the knowledge into a user-friendly DSC device model. Starting from basic physical and electrochemical concepts, mathematical expressions for the IV curve and differential resistance of all resistive cell components are derived and their relation to electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) is explained. The current understanding of the associated physics is discussed in detail and clarified. It is shown how the model parameters can be determined from complete DSCs by current dependent EIS and incident-photon-to-collected-electron (IPCE) measurements, supplemented by optical characterization, and used to quantify performance losses in DSCs. The paper aims to give a necessary theoretical background and practical guidelines for establishing an effective feedback-loop for DSC testing and development.

show abstract

Initial Performance of Dye Solar Cells on Stainless Steel Substrates

Cited by 58 publications

References 28 publications

A carbon gel catalyst layer for the roll-to-roll production of dye solar cells

A carbon gel catalyst layer for the roll-to-roll production of dye solar cells

Non‐Corrosive, Non‐Absorbing Organic Redox Couple for Dye‐Sensitized Solar Cells

Device Physics of Dye Solar Cells

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About