Production and Performance of Dye Sensitive Solar Cells Using Co+2 Doped Photo-Anodes

Abstract

In order to increase the use of solar energy, which is one of the renewable energy sources, it isto produce high-efficiency, low-cost and environmentally friendly dye-sensitive solar cells from solar cellsprovided by photovoltaic technology that generates electricity from solar energy. Therefore, there is a needto develop new materials and modified designs to produce solar cells at lower cost. One way to increasethe efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCC) is by doping at the anode. At the same time, graphenepaste was used instead of Pt cathode to reduce the cost. In this study, pure and Cobalt (Co+2) added TiO2pastes were prepared to produce DSCC. Photovoltaic performances were determined by comparing pureand doped batteries with each other. For this purpose, pure and Co+2 added TiO2 pastes were first prepared.The resulting pastes were applied to FTO glasses with the doctor-blade method. Then, DSCCs wereproduced by sandwiching pure and Co+2 doped TiO2 photoanodes sensitized with N-719 dye with graphenecoated FTO thin films. The performance of the produced DSCCs was determined by Current Density (J) -Voltage (V) analysis. There was a certain increase in FF and Jsc values with doping. However, the resultsshowed that the efficiency value of Co+2 doped batteries is 370% above the value of batteries using pureTiO2 photo-anodes.