Surface modification and retardation of back reaction by nitrogen ion-beam treatment in dye-sensitized solar cells

Abstract

The photovoltaic performances and charge recombination of the dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) using N-modified TiO 2 photoelectrodes were investigated under different ionbeam conditions. N-modified TiO 2 films exhibited significantly enhanced BET surface area of 92.19 m 2 /g with the pore volume of 0.283 cm 3 /g compared to the surface area of 56.65 m 2 /g with a pore volume of 0.141 cm 3 /g of pristine TiO 2 film. The interstitial and substitutional affixations of nitrogen atom inside the TiO 2 lattice were confirmed by XPS and Raman spectroscopy. A 26% improvement in conversion efficiency was achieved by using N + ion-beam treated TiO 2 photoelectrode.

Highly electrocatalytic hybrid silver nanowire-graphene counter electrode for Co3+/2+ redox mediator based dye-sensitized solar cells

“…All measurements were performed at room temperature in the dark condition at 0 V. A ZView software (Scribner Associates Inc.) was used to fit the EIS data. The rest of the DSSC preparation procedure and characterization methods were described in the literature [17]. % which implies that about 5 layered of graphene sheet was over-coated on the AgNW film, consistent with the result obtained for graphene platelet film only [18].…”

Pt and TCO free hybrid bilayer silver nanowire–graphene counter electrode for dye-sensitized solar cells

“…Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) are considered to be one of the most attractive alternative photovoltaics of solid-state silicon solar cells due to their potential to generate electricity on resource-abundant raw materials and energy-saving device processing [1,2]. A typical DSSC consists of transparent conducting oxide (TCO) films on a glass substrate, a wide band gap semiconductor, a ruthenium based dye, a redox electrolyte solution and a Pt coated TCO counter electrode (CE) [3]. The working mechanism of DSSCs accompanied by the ultrafast injection of photoelectron from the excited dye to the conduction band of semiconductor and the photoelectron pass through the external circuit to the CE [4].…”