Experimental investigation of dye sensitized solar cells, formed with obtaining thin films by using undoped and Nb‐doped TiO 2 precursors

Abstract

In this study, the effect of the working electrode obtained by using different methods and chemicals on the efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) is examined. The aim here is to carry out the undoped and metal-doped TiO2 deposition process by the ultrasonic spray pyrolysis (USP) method. Titanium dioxide (TiO2) semiconductor is selected to form the working electrode and Niobium (Nb) is used for metal doping. The working electrode is obtained by spraying the previously prepared undoped and Nb-doped TiO2 solution onto fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) glass by USP Technique. The working electrodes obtained are used to fabricate DSSC. XRD, SEM, and EDS analyses are performed to examine the surface morphology, crystal structure, and elemental properties of conductive glasses. By assembling the components as a sandwich, two different cells are formed. The efficiency of the cell which has an undoped TiO2 thin film is 0.088%, and the efficiency of the cell which has Nb-doped TiO2 thin film is 0.375%. These results proved that the doped cell is more efficient than the undoped cell and that it can be produced more economically.