Dye sensitized solar cells prepared by flames stabilized on a rotating surface

Abstract

A previously developed flame synthesis method was applied to the preparation of mesoporous titania films for application in dye sensitized solar cells (DSSC). The method combines the synthesis of narrowly sized, ultrafine metal oxide particles with controllable chemical and phase purity and the deposition of these particles into a uniform, porous thin film in a single step. The current work used a series of ethylene–oxygen–argon flames to produce DSSC anode films of wide ranging properties. The performance of the solar cells prepared with these anode films was studied at the fundamental level with respect to variations of the titania crystal phase purity and content resulting from changes primarily from flame stoichiometry changes. Based on the basic relationship established among flame synthesis condition-material property-cell performance, a highly efficient DSSC was designed, which shows photocurrent densities better than some of the best performing cells reported to date. Additional studies have focused on a demonstration of the suitability of the flame process in engineering TiO2 films structurally and chemically with the potential of further improved DSSC efficiency.