PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | October 17, 2013
Proc. SPIE. 8830, Organic Photovoltaics XIV
KEYWORDS: Carbon, Titanium dioxide, Electrodes, Polymers, Glasses, Solar cells, Resistance, Dye sensitized solar cells, Solid state electronics, Zirconium dioxide
The high cost of electricity produced by solar cells compared with electricity from other energy sources inhibits a more widespread adoption of solar energy. Here, a low-cost monolithic all-solid-state dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) was developed with a mesoscopic carbon counter electrode (CE). Based on the design of a triple layer structure, the TiO2 working electrode layer, ZrO2 spacer layer and carbon counter electrode (CE) layer are constructed on a single conducting glass substrate by screen-printing. With a vacuum pore-filling technique, solid-state materials such as PEO/PVDF polymer composite, poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and 2,2’,7,7’-tetrakis(N,N-di-p-methoxyphenylamine)- 9,9’-spirobifluorene (spiro-OMeTAD) hole transport material (HTM) could effectively infiltrate the multilayer thick films to assemble all-solid-state devices. The high surface area and large pore volume favor the penetration of the solidstate electrolyte materials and could reduce the resistance of the interface between CE and solid-state electrolyte. Correspondingly, efficiency up to 3.23% was obtained with polymer composite electrolyte and the dye of N719. With the dye of D102, efficiencies of 3.11% and 3.45% were obtained for the HTMs of P3HT and spiro-OMeTAD based electrolytes. In addition, a mesoscopic methylammonium lead iodide (CH<sub>3</sub>NH<sub>3</sub>PbI<sub>3</sub>) perovskite/TiO2 heterojunction solar cell was developed based on the monolithic structure and showed an efficiency of up to 6.53%. This design for monolithic DSSC with a carbon CE presents a promising commercial application prospect for this photovoltaic technology.
