A Surface Resistance Effect on the Fabrication of Dye-sensitized Solar Cell with Various Widths

Abstract

Sputter deposition followed by surface treatment was studied using reactive RF plasma as a method for preparing titanium oxide (TiO2) films on the FTO (fluorine doped tin oxide, SnO2: F) substrate for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs). Anatase structure TiO2 films deposited by reactive RF magnetron sputtering under the conditions of Ar/O2 (5%) mixing gas, RF power of 600 W and substrate temperature of 400°C were surface-treated by inductive coupled plasma (ICP) with Ar/O2 mixing gas at substrate temperature of 400°C, and thus the films were applied to the DSCs. We have chosen a solar cell width as a variable of a large-scaled DSCs and confirmed electric characteristics of an individual cell. As a result, the higher the internal resistance of DSC becomes, the wider the width gets. Internal resistance makes it difficult to collect photoelectron generated from dye. Ultimately up sizing DSC causes the increase of internal resistance and then has a bad effect on the cell characteristics.