Effect of RF sputtered arc-TiO<inf>2</inf> and sol-gel c-TiO<inf>2</inf> compact layers on the performance of dye-sensitized solar cell

Abstract

A novel gradient index antireflective TiO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> compact layer (arc-TiO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> ) that can improve transmittance and prevent charge recombination has been developed for dye-sensitized solar cells by radio frequency magnetron sputtering. Effects of the presence of arc-TiO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> compact layer to the performance improvement of a DSSC were compared to that of a sol-gel derived compact layer (c-TiO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> ) by means of incident photon-to-current efficiency (IPCE) and open-circuit voltage decay (OCVD). The higher and right-shifted transmittance spectra in the arc-TiO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> based electrode have improved the sensitization effect of the DSSC in a specific region as shown by IPCE measurement. The slow decay behavior of the photo-voltage attributed to the merits brought by the arc-TiO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> and c-TiO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> compact layer has been evidenced by the OCVD measurement. An improvement in the overall conversion efficiency of 7% increment compared to the cell with c-TiO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> compact layer is mainly responsible for the higher transmittance and fewer recombination effects of the arc-TiO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> compact layer employed in the DSSC.