Influence of capacitance characteristic on dye-sensitized solar cell's IPCE measurement

Abstract

It is found that the traditional monochromatic incident photon-to-electron conversion efficiency (IPCE) measurement method, such as the American Society for Testing and Materials standard (ASTM), is not suitable for measuring the IPCE of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Experiments showed that the chopper's frequency in this method influences the measured DSSCs' IPCE value considerably, while no such impact was found in that of the Si cell. The quantitative analysis, which is based on equivalent circuits and parameter estimation, proved the existence of capacitance characteristics in DSSCs causing the fluctuation of the measured IPCE. An equivalent circuit parameter was estimated from a typical dye solar cell, which was characterized with the crystalline ingredient, the particle size and the I–V curve. The fluctuations of the measured IPCE were revealed by adjusting the chopper frequencies of one traditional IPCE measurement system. Finally, the method to obtain the real value of DSSCs' IPCE is proposed.