• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.194-199
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• 2016

We prepared polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) beads with a particle size of 80 nm to improve the energy conversion efficiency (ECE) by increasing the effective surface area and the dye absorption ability of the working electrodes (WEs) in a dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC). We prepared the $TiO_2$ layer with PMMA beads of 0.0~1.0 wt%; then, finally, a DSSC with $0.45cm^2$ active area was obtained. Optical microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy, and atomic force microscopy were used to characterize the microstructure of the $TiO_2$ layer with PMMA. UV-VIS-NIR was used to determine the optical absorbance of the WEs with PMMA. A solar simulator and a potentiostat were used to determine the photovoltaic properties of the PMMA-added DSSC. Analysis of the microstructure showed that pores of 200 nm were formed by the decomposition of PMMA. Also, root mean square values linearly increased as more PMMA was added. The absorbance in the visible light regime was found to increase as the degree of PMMA dispersion increased. The ECE increased from 4.91% to 5.35% when the amount of PMMA beads added was increased from 0.0 to 0.4 wt%. However, the ECE decreased when more than 0.6 wt% of PMMA was added. Thus, adding a proper amount of PMMA to the $TiO_2$ layer was determined to be an effective method for improving the ECE of a DSSC.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.2037-2042
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• 2013

A TCO-less palladium (Pd) catalytic layer on the glass substrate was assessed as the counter electrode (CE) in a dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) to confirm the stability of Pd with the $I^-/I_3{^-}$electrolyte on the DSSC performance. A 90nm-thick Pd film was deposited by a thermal evaporator. Finally, DSSC devices of $0.45cm^2$ with glass/FTO/blocking layer/$TiO_2$/dye/electrolyte(10 mM LiI + 1 mM $I_2$ + 0.1 M $LiClO_4$ in acetonitrile solution)/Pd/glass structure was prepared. We investigated the microstructure and photovoltaic property at 1 and 12 hours after the sample preparation. The optical microscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), cyclic voltammetry measurement (C-V), and current voltage (I-V) were employed to measure the microstructure and photovoltaic property evolution. Microstructure analysis showed that the corrosion by reaction between the Pd layer and the electrolyte occurred as time went by, which led the decrease of the catalytic activity and the efficiency. I-V result revealed that the energy conversion efficiency after 1 and 12 hours was 0.34% and 0.15%, respectively. Our results implied that we might employ the other non-$I^-/I_3{^-}$electrolyte or the other catalytic metal layers to guarantee the long term stability of the DSSC devices.

• Proceedings of the Polymer Society of Korea Conference
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• 2006.10a
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• pp.273-273
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• 2006

The encapsulation of volatile organic electrolytes is a major challenge in practical applications of the DSSC. Ionic liquid (IL) within polymer electrolytes is an attractive candidate for replacement. Here we used a low viscosity ionic liquid 1-ethyl 3-methylimidazolium thiocyanate in order to modify ionic conductivity (${\sigma}$) of polymer electrolyte ($PEO:Kl/l_{2}$) and hence DSSC efficiency. The doping of IL enhanced ${\sigma}$ and attained maximum (${\sigma}=7.62{\times}10^{-4}S/cm$) at 80 wt% of IL concentration. Beyond this it was harder to get stable films. XRD confirmed that the intensity of the sharp PEO crystalline peaks decreased when IL was added. The DSC studies confirmed the reduction in crystallinity by adding ionic liquid.The efficiency of solar cell using aforesaid material was 0.6 % at 1 sun irradiation.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.61 no.4
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• pp.595-600
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• 2012

In this paper, it is investigated the characteristics of DSSC(Dye Sensitized Solar Cell) with cell area(0.25, 1, 2.25 $cm^2$) and dye absorption time(12, 24, 36 h). Thus, we obtain the following results by using the EIS, UV-VIS, I-V measurement. When the cell area increases, the efficiency decreases to 21~32 percent because of the increase about 40~$60{\Omega}$ of internal impedance regardless of dye absorption time. When the absorption time increases up to 24 hours, the efficiency increases to over 40 percent cause of the reduction of internal impedance regardless of cell area. When the dye absorption time becomes 36 hours, the internal impedance increases and at the same time, in the range of 600~700 nm, as the optical absorption reduces. Therefore, the efficiency decreases to 19~31 percent. When it is absorbed the dye for 24 hours in the smallest cell area which is 0.25 $cm^2$, the DSSC has the best efficiency (7.11 %).

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.385-385
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• 2009

Uniform polyaniline nanofibers (PANI NFs), and chemically doped sulfamic acid(SFA) PANI NFs, synthesized via template free interfacial polymerization process, were used as new counter electrodes materials for the fabrication of the highly-efficient dyesensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The PANI NFs based fabricated DSSCs exhibited a solarto-electricity conversion efficiency of ~ 4.02% while, the SFA doped PANI NFs based DSSC demonstrated ~ 27% improvement in the solar-to-electricity conversion efficiency. The obtained solar-to-electricity conversion efficiency for SFA doped PANI NFs based DSSC was 5.47% under 100mW/$cm^2$(AM1.5). The enhancement in the conversion efficiency was due to the incorporation of SFA into the PANI NFs which resulted to the higher electrocatalytic activity for the $I^{3-}/I^-$ redox reaction.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.338-343
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• 2015

Dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), which is one of the contending renewable energy sources, have the problem of low efficiency. To improve the efficiency, the fast electron transport and long electron lifetime are required. In this study, one-dimensional sodium hexatitanate, which is expected to have an advantageous structure for electron transports, was synthesized and the feasibility of the material on DSSC was tested. Its physical properties were characterized by the SEM, XRD, and BET method. The dye adsorption and solar cell properties were also characterized. In addition to the expectation of fast electron transport, sodium hexatitanate showed longer electron lifetime: This means sodium hexatitanate can improve the DSSC efficiency. However, it showed low current and voltage because of the low surface area leading to the low amount of dye adsorbed. Therefore, it should be mixed with titanium oxide with high surface area for the optimal performance.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.423-423
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• 2012

Recently, many researchers made progress in various studies improving the efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cell. In this paper, we used glass textured by wet-chemical etching process for improvement of photocurrent density in dye-sensitized solar cells. This is owing to increase coefficient of light utilization. Consequently, DSSC using the textured glass exhibit a Jsc of 9.49 mA/$cm^2$, a Voc of 0.73 V and a fill factor (FF) of 0.67 with an overall conversion efficiency of 4.64. This result showed increasing of 20% current density and 16% conversion efficiency using the textured glass. These results suggested that glass texturing was very effective in controlling the light-scattering properties into the photovoltaic cell.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.1081-1088
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• 2013

Two new metal-free organic dyes bridged by anthracene-mediated ${\pi}$-conjugated moieties were successfully synthesized for use in a dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC). A N,N-diphenylthiophen-2-amine unit in these dyes acts as an electron donor, while a (E)-2-cyano-3-(thiophen-2-yl)acrylic acid group acts as an electron acceptor and an anchoring group to the $TiO_2$ electrode. The photovoltaic properties of (E)-2-cyano-3-(5-((10-(5-(diphenylamino)thiophen-2-yl)anthracen-9-yl)ethynyl)thiophen-2-yl)acrylic acid (DPATAT) and (E)-2-cyano-3-(5'-((10-(5-(diphenylamino)thiophen-2-yl)anthracen-9-yl)ethynyl)-2,2'-bithiophen-5-yl)acrylic acid (DPATABT) were investigated to identify the effect of conjugation length between electron donor and acceptor on the DSSC performance. By introducing an anthracene moiety into the dye structure, together with a triple bond and thiophene moieties for fine-tuning of molecular configurations and for broadening the absorption spectra, the short-circuit photocurrent densities ($J_{sc}$), and open-circuit photovoltages ($V_{oc}$) of DSSCs were improved. The improvement of $J_{sc}$ in DSSC made of DPATABT might be attributed to much broader absorption spectrum and higher molecular extinction coefficient (${\varepsilon}$) in the visible wavelength range. The DPATABT-based DSSC showed the highest power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 3.34% (${\eta}_{max}$ = 3.70%) under AM 1.5 illumination ($100mWcm^{-2}$) in a photoactive area of $0.41cm^2$, with the $J_{sc}$ of $7.89mAcm^{-2}$, the $V_{oc}$ of 0.59 V, and the fill factor (FF) of 72%. In brief, the solar cell performance with DPATABT was found to be better than that of DPATAT-based DSSC.

• Proceedings of the KAIS Fall Conference
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• 2011.05b
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• pp.836-839
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• 2011

염료감응형 태양전지의 상대전극으로 MWCNT(multi-walled carbon nanotube)의 농도 (0.01~0.06g)를 달리하여 FTO(fluorine-doped tin oxide) glass에 분산시켜 상대전극을 만들었다. 그리고 glass/FTO/$TiO_2$/Dye(N719)/electrolyte(C6DMII,GSCN)/MWCNT/FTO/glass 구조를 가진 0.45$cm^2$급 DSSC(dye-sensitized solar cells) 소자를 만들었다. 소자의 미세구조, 분산정도, 광특성은 각각 광학현미경, SEM, source measure unit (Keithley model 2400) 장비를 이용하여 확인하였다. MWCNT 농도 증가와 FTO의 거친 표면형상에 따라 비선형적으로 MWCNT 분산면적이 증가하였고, MWCNT 농도 0.06g일 때 FTO 표면에 전체적으로 MWCNT가 완전히 분산됨을 확인하였다. 소자의 광변환 효율은 MWCNT 분산면적에 비례하는 효율을 보였고, MWCNT 분산농도인 0.06g 일 때 4.49%의 광변환 효율을 얻을 수 있었다.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.831-836
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• 2013

Platinized counter electrode is common in most of the dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) researches because of its high catalytic activity and corrosion stability against iodine in the electrolyte. Platinum (Pt) film coating on fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) glass surface by using alcoholic solution of hexachloroplatinic acid ($H_2PtCl_6$), paste containing Pt precursors or sputtering are widely used techniques. This paper presents a novel application of Pt ink containing nanoparticles for making platinized counter electrode for DSSC. The characteristics of Pt films coated on FTO glass surface by different chemical methods were compared along with the performance parameters of the DSSCs made by using the films as counter electrodes. The samples coated with Pt inks were sintered at $300^{\circ}C$ for 30 minutes whereas Pt-film and Pt-paste were sintered at $400^{\circ}C$ for 30 minutes. The Pt ink diluted in n-hexane was found to a promising candidate for the preparation of platinized counter electrode. The ink may also be applicable for DSSC on flexible substrates after optimization its sintering temperature.