Novel Nondestructive Measurement of Dye Adsorption on Solid Titania Films for Its Sensitized Solar Cells

Abstract

A new nondestructive quantitative method is developed to measure the adsorption of dyes in solid titania films for dye-sensitized solar cells. UV-vis spectroscopy study showed that the absorbance of dye in the solid film can be directly related to the absorbance measured by the typical destructive method used to quantify concentration. Concentrations of N-719 and N-749 dyes on solid titania films were successfully extracted using molar extinction coefficients of dye on solid titania films with value of 6916 and 6454 L•cm −1 •mol −1 respectively determined using the spectral peaks at 512 and 586 nm.

Assessment of Ruthenium Dye N719 Adsorption Kinetics in Mesoporous TiO2 Films of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells via Nanoplasmonic Sensing

“…e 3, 5, 7, and 10 μm films prepared are impregnated at times varying from 3 to 60 hours at a film temperature of 55°C, while the dye is kept at room temperature. Dye uptake is measured by taking sample readings of dye absorbance on solid titania films using UV-Vis Spectrometer Lambda 950 Perkin Elmer following a procedure described elsewhere [17]. Devices are constructed following a previous work by Rajab [18] using 60 μm spacers and characterized using a solar simulator IV-16 solar cell I-V measurement system from PV Measurements and QEX7 solar cell spectral response/quantum efficiency/IPCE measurement system from PV Measurements.…”

Effect of Solvent, Dye-Loading Time, and Dye Choice on the Performance of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

“…A Filmetrics F20 thin-film analyzer and a scanning electron microscope were used to measure the film thickness. Dye concentrations were measured using a nondestructive UV-Vis technique whose details are described elsewhere [15]. Briefly, UV-Vis spectroscopy of the titania films or dye solutions was done in the range of 350 to 650 nm in a Perkin-Elmer Lambda 9 UV/Vis/NIR spectrometer.…”

“…The voltage changes were fit to a decay function, and the derivative of the function was used to calculate the electron lifetime using the equation = ( / )( / ) −1 , where is Boltzmann's constant, is the temperature, is the electron charge, is the voltage, and is time. The ratio / is the thermal voltage, which at room temperature has the value of 0.026 V. a nondestructive technique [15]. The SCF Method delivered comparable absorbance to the Dip Methods 1 and 2; however, the supercritical-fluid technique required a much shorter application time.…”

“…For the 10 m films, while the energy conversion efficiency is higher at the maximum dyeloading time of 18 hours, the quantum efficiency peaks at 15 hours and then drops at 18 hours, as seen in Figure 2(f). This indicates that recombination effects start to reverse the increasing trend as a result of multilayer formation, which causes quenching of the photoexcited electrons and leads to a reduction of charge injection [15]. Figure 4 shows the energy conversion efficiency derived from the current-voltage curves for devices fabricated using these three dye impregnation methods.…”