Dye-sensitized Solar Cells with Higher Jsc by Using Polyvinylidene Fluoride Membrane Counter Electrodes

Xiaodong Li,Zhuo Sun,Dingwen Zhang,Si Chen,Sumei Huang,Xijiang Yin,Heng Zhang

doi:10.1007/bf03353672

Abstract

Abstract A flexible counter electrode (CE) for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) has been fabricated using a micro-porous polyvinylidene fluoride membrane as support media and sputtered Pt as the catalytic material. Non-conventional structure DSCs have been developed by the fabricated CEs. The Pt metal was sputtered onto one surface of the membrane as the catalytic material. DSCs were assembled by attaching the TiO2 electrode to the membrane surface without Pt coating. The membrane was with cylindrical pore geometry. It served not only as a substrate for the CE but also as a spacer for the DSC. The fabricated DSC with the flexible membrane CE showed higher photocurrent density than the conventional sandwich devices based on chemically deposited Pt/FTO glass, achieving a photovoltaic conversion efficiency of 4.43%. The results provides useful information in investigation and development of stable, low-cost, simple-design, flexible and lightweight DSCs.

Highlights

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) have been regarded as one of the most promising third generation photovoltaic devices due to their easy production, possibility of low-cost manufacture process and relatively high efficiency to convert solar energy into electricity [1,2,3,4,5]
The pores of the original and Pt-coated membranes were perpendicular to the membrane surface and exhibited cylindrical geometry
We have investigated the feasibility of a nonconventional structure dye-sensitized solar cell

Summary

Introduction

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) have been regarded as one of the most promising third generation photovoltaic devices due to their easy production, possibility of low-cost manufacture process and relatively high efficiency to convert solar energy into electricity [1,2,3,4,5]. Monolithic DSCs have been developed using carbon as a back contact to cut the material cost [19,20], offering a prospect of low cost fabrication and simple manufacturing process [21] Novel substrates such as plastic foils have been used to fabricate flexible CEs to achieve the requirement for portable electricity and high-throughput industrial roll-to-roll production [22,23]. The formed DSC with porous and flexible membrane CE shows higher photocurrent density than chemically deposited Pt/FTO glass based devices, achieving a photovoltaic conversion efficiency of 4.43%. Its mass per unit area is only 0.5% of that for the FTO glass with a thickness of 2.2 mm This will benefit for lowering the transportation cost for large scale production. The area of the solar cells is 0.196 cm

Results and discussion

Conventional DSC

Conclusions