(583h) Nanofiber-Based Dye Sensitized Solar Cells with a Novel Nano-Particle Scattering Layer

Dye sensitized solar cells (DSSC) is a very promising low-cost, high efficiency, thin-film solar cells. Here, we introduce a novel technique where incoming solar light can be effectively trapped thereby increasing the cell efficiency.

Polydispersed-size nanocrystallite titanium dioxide (TiO₂) with large surface area are fabricated by nozzle-less electrospraying using a precursor solution consisted of titanium isopropoxide (TIP) / polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and ethanol.  

The polydispersed TiO₂ nanoparticles are applied to dye sensitized solar cell as a novel scattering layer, which function both as dye loading and light trapping. By modifying the electrospraying condition, such as changing the voltage across the rotating electrode and the ground receiving the nanostructures, the mean size and size distribution of TiO2 nanoparticle can be engineered to balance both dye loading with smaller size and light trapping with larger size. After optimization, a high power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 8.71% can be achieved with the polydispersed-size TiO₂ nanoparticles as the scattering layer when compared with PCE of 7.17% obtained for the photoanode with the traditional scattering layer made of 200nm monodispersed TiO₂ nanoparticles; which represents an impressive 21% increase