• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2007.08a
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• pp.377-377
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• 2007

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.24 no.10
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• pp.565-571
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• 2014

Nitrogen-doped ZnO nanoparticle-carbon nanofiber composites were prepared using electrospinning. As the relative amounts of N-doped ZnO nanoparticles in the composites were controlled to levels of 3.4, 9.6, and 13.8 wt%, the morphological, structural, and chemical properties of the composites were characterized by means of field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). In particular, the carbon nanofiber composites containing 13.8 wt% N-doped ZnO nanoparticles exhibited superior catalytic properties, making them suitable for use as counter electrodes in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). This result can be attributed to the enhanced surface roughness of the composites, which offers sites for $I_3{^-}$ ion reductions and the formation of Zn3N2 phases that facilitate electron transfer. Therefore, DSSCs fabricated with 13.8 wt% N-doped ZnO nanoparticle-carbon nanofiber composites showed high current density ($16.3mA/cm^2$), high fill factor (57.8%), and excellent power-conversion efficiency (6.69%); at the same time, these DSSCs displayed power-conversion efficiency almost identical to that of DSSCs fabricated with a pure Pt counter electrode (6.57%).

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.90.1-90.1
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• 2010

Due to the rapidly diminishing energy sources and higher energy production cost, the interest in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) has been increasing dramatically in recent years. A typical DSSC is constructed of wide band gap semiconductor electrode such as $TiO_2$ or ZnO that are anchored by light-harvesting sensitizer dyes and surrounded by a liquid electrolyte with a iodide ion/triiodide ion redox couple. DSSCs based on one-dimensional nano-structures, such as ZnO nanorods, have been recently attracting increasing attention due to their excellent electrical conductivity, high optical transmittance, diverse and abundant configurations, direct band gap, absence of toxicity, large exiton binding energy, etc. However, solar-to-electrical conversion performances of DSSCs composed of ZnO n-type photo electrode compared with that of $TiO_2$ are not satisfactory. An important reason for the low photovoltaic performance is the dissolution of $Zn^{2+}$ by the adsorption of acidic dye followed by the formation of agglomerates with dye molecules which could block the I-diffusion pathway into the dye molecule on the ZnO surface. In this paper, we prepared the DSSC with the ZnO electrode using the chemical bath deposition (CBD) method under low temperature condition (< $100^{\circ}C$). It was demonstrated that the ZnO seed layers played an important role on the formation of the ZnO nanostructures using CBD. To achieve truly low-temperature growth of the ZnO nanostructures on the substrates, a two-step method was developed and optimized in the present work. Firstly, ZnO seed layer was prepared on the FTO substrate through the spin-coating method. Secondly, the deposited ZnO seed substrate was immersed into an aqueous solution of 0.25M zinc nitrate hexahydrate and 0.25M hexamethylenetetramine at $90^{\circ}C$ for hydrothermal reaction several times.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.08a
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• pp.68-69
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• 2011

The process of charge transfer at the interface between two semiconductors or between a metal and a semiconductor plays an important role in many areas of technology. The optimization of such devices requires a good theoretical description of the interfaces involved. This, in turn, has motivated detailed mechanistic studies of interfacial charge-transfer reactions at metal/organic, organic/organic, and organic/inorganic semiconductor heterojunctions. Charge recombination of photo-induced electron with redox species such as oxidized dyes or triiodide or cationic HTM (hole transporting materials) at the heterogeneous interface of $TiO_2$ is one of main loss factors in liquid junction DSSCs or solid-state DSSCs, respectively. Among the attempts to prevent recombination reactions such as insulating thin layer and lithium ions-doped hole transport materials and introduction of co-adsorbents, although co-adsorbents retard the recombination reactions as hydrophobic energy barriers, little attention has been focused on the anchoring processes. Molecular engineering of heterogeneous interfaces by employing several co-adsorbents with different properties altered the surface properties of $TiO_2$ electrodes, resulting to the improved power conversion efficiency and long-term stability of the DSSCs. In this talk, advantages of the coadsorbent-assisted sensitization of N719 in preparation of DSSCs will be discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.198-203
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• 2013

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) based on titanium dioxide ($TiO_2$) have been extensively studied because of their promising low-cost alternatives to conventional semiconductor based solar cells. DSSCs consist of molecular dye at the interface between a liquid electrolyte and a mesoporous wide-bandgap semiconductor oxide. Most efforts for high conversion efficiencies have focused on dye and liquid electrolytes. However, interface engineering between dye and electrode is also important to reduce recombination and improve efficiency. In this work, for interface engineering, we deposited semiconducting ferroelectric $BiFeO_3$ with bandgap of 2.8 eV on $TiO_2$ nanoparticles and nanotubes. Photovoltaic properties of DSSCs were characterized as a function of thickness of $BiFeO_3$. We showed that ferroelectric $BiFeO_3$-coated $TiO_2$ electrodes enable to increase overall efficiency of DSSCs, which was associated with efficient electron transport due to internal electric field originating from electric polarization. It was suggested that engineering the dye-$TiO_2$ interface using ferroelectric materials as inorganic modifiers can be key parameter for enhanced photovoltaic performance of the cell.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.183-188
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• 2019

Flexible dye-sensitized solar cells using binder free $TiO_2$ paste for low temperature sintering are developed. In this paste a small amount of titanium gel is added to a paste of $TiO_2$ nanoparticle. Analysis of titanium gel paste prepared at $150^{\circ}C$ shows that it has a pure anatase phase in XRD and mesoporous structure in SEM. The formation of the titanium gel 1-2 nm coated layer is confirmed by comparing the TEM image analysis of the titanium gel paste and the pristine paste. This coating layer improves the excited electron transfer and electrical contact between particles. The J-V curves of the organic binder DSSCs fabricated at $150^{\circ}C$ shows a current density of $0.12mA/cm^2$ and an open-circuit voltage of 0.47 V, while the titanium gel DSSCs improves electrical characteristics to $5.04mA/cm^2$ and 0.74 V. As a result, the photoelectric conversion efficiency of the organic binder DSSC prepared at low temperature is as low as 0.02 %, but the titanium gel paste DSSCs has a measured effciency of 2.76 %.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.289-296
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• 2014

Here, we have studied the effect of water added electrolyte on the photovoltaic performance of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). It was found that open-circuit voltage ($V_{oc}$) increased and short-circuit current density ($j_{sc}$) decreased with the increase of the amount of added water in the electrolyte of the DSSCs. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) study showed that the electrolyte with added water shifted the dye loaded $TiO_2$ conduction band upward that eventually increased $V_{oc}$ of the cells. On the other hand, the upward shift of $TiO_2$ conduction band decreased the driving force for the electron injection from the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) of the dye molecules to the conduction band of $TiO_2$ that resulted in decreased $j_{sc}$.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.153-158
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• 2012

We use UV(ultraviolet)-$O_3$ treatment to increase the surface area and porosity of $TiO_2$ films in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). After the UV-$O_3$ treatment, surface area and porosity of the $TiO_2$ films were increased, the increased porosity lead to amount of dye loading and solar conversion efficiency was improved. Field emission scanning electron microscopy images clearly showed that the nanocrystalline porosity of films were increased by UV-$O_3$ treatment. The Brunauer, Emmett, and Teller surface area of the $TiO_2$ films were increased from $0.71cm^2/g$ to $1.31cm^2/g$ by using UV-$O_3$ treatment for 20 min. Also, UV-$O_3$ treatment of $TiO_2$ films significantly enhanced their solar conversion efficiency. The efficiency of the films without treatment was 4.9%, and was increased to 5.6% by UV-$O_3$ treatment for 20 min. Therefore the process enhanced the solar conversion efficiency of DSSCs, and can be used to develop high sensitivity DSSCs.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.120.2-120.2
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• 2011

The improvement of solar energy-to-electricity conversion efficiency has continued to be an important research area of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The mechanism of DSSCs is based on the injection of electrons from the photoexcited dye into the conduction band of nanocrystalline TiO2 or ZnO. Thus, the electronic structures, such as HOMO, LUMO, and HOMO-LUMO band gaps of dye moleculed in DSSC are deeply related to the electron transfer by photoexcitation and redox potential. Organic dyes, because of their many advantages, such as high molar extinction coefficients, convenience of customized molecular design for desired photophysical and photochemical properties, inexpensiveness with no transition metals contained, and environment-friendliness, are suitable as photosensitizers for DSSC. We believe that practically useful organic dye photosensitizers can be produced by exploiting electron donor/acceptor system with proper length of ${\pi}$-conjugation in a chromophore to control the absorption wavelength and enhance the photovoltaic performance. In this research, We designed and synthesized organic dyes also investigated the photoelectrochemical properties of a series of ionic dyes in DSSCs.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.309-312
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• 2007

Sputter deposition followed by surface treatment was studied using reactive RF plasma as a method for preparing titanium oxide($TiO_{2}$) films on indium tin oxide(ITO) coated glass substrate for dye-sensitized solar cells(DSSCs). Anatase structure $TiO_{2}$ films deposited by reactive RF magnetron sputtering under the conditions of $Ar/O_{2}$(5%) mixtures, RF power of 600W and substrate temperature of $400^{\circ}C$ were surface-treated by inductive coupled plasma(ICP) with $Ar/O_{2}$ mixtures at substrate temperature of $400^{\circ}C$, and thus the films were applied to the DSSCs, The $TiO_{2}$ Films made on these exhibited the BET specific surface area of 95, the pore volume of $0.3cm^{2}$ and the TEM particle size of ${\sim}25$ nm. The DSSCs made of this $TiO_{2}$ material exhibited an energy conversion efficiency of about 2.25% at $100mW/cm^{2}$ light intensity.