• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.34-39
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• 2018

In this study, e-beam equipment was used to form silver nanoparticles on thin films of $TiO_2$ to increase the efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells and improve the annealing process. $TiO_2$ thin films with nanoparticle photoelectrodes were fabricated in individual units for use in dye-sensitized solar cells. The characteristics of dye-sensitized solar cells were compared to those of the prepared $TiO_2$ photoelectrode with and without nanoparticles. The dye-sensitized solar cells with silver nanoparticles showed a significant increase in the electric current density compared with the pure $TiO_2$ dye-sensitized solar cell and improved the solar conversion efficiency to 27.89%. The increased density of electric current increased the extent of light absorption of the dye owing to the plasmon resonance of the nanoparticles at the local surfaces. This phenomenon led to increased light scattering, which in turn increased the current density of the dye-sensitized solar cells and improved the solar conversion efficiency.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.10-18
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• 2010

Nanostructured metal oxides have been widely used in the research fields of photoelectrochemistry, photochemistry and opto-electronics. Dye-sensitized solar cell is a typical example because it is based on nanostructured $TiO_2$. Since the discovery of dye-sensitized solar cell in 1991, it has been considered as a promising photovoltaic solar cell because of low-cost, colorful and semitransparent characteristics. Unlike p-n junction type solar cell, dye-sensitized solar cell is photoelectrochemical type and is usually composed of the dye-adsorbed nanocrystalline metal oxide, the iodide/tri-iodide redox electrolyte and the Pt and/or carbon counter electrode. Among the studied issues to improve efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cell, nanoengineering technologies of metal oxide particle and film have been reviewed in terms of improving optical property, electron transport and electron life time.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.175-178
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• 2006

Solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells were fabricated using a polymer matrix in electrolyte in the purpose of the improvement of the durability in the dye-sensitized solar cell. In these dye-sensitized solar cells, the polymer electrolyte consisting of $I_2$, LiI, ionic liquid, ethylene carbonate/propylene carbonate and polymer matrix was casted onto $TiO_2$ electrode impregnated Ruthenium complex dye as a photosensitizer. Photovoltaic properties of solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells using polymer matrix (PMMA, PEG, or PAN) were investigated. Comparing photovoltaic effects of cells using hole conducting polymers (BE or 6P) instead of polymer matrix, we investigated the availability of the solid-state polymer electrolyte in dye-sensitized solar cells.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.1050-1056
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• 2014

Dye sensitized solar cells were fabricated using natural dyes extracted from beetroot, rose and strawberry. The ZnO nanorod working electrode has been prepared by simple hydrothermal method. The crystallinity and morphology of the prepared electrode has been studied using X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy techniques. The effect of natural dye extract temperature, pH of the dye and the solvent used for dye preparation on the solar cell characteristics have been studied. The efficiency of strawberry extract sensitized ZnO nanorod solar cells are found to be better than the other solar cells sensitized using beetroot and rose extracts.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.1449-1454
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• 2014

The co-sensitization of N719 with a cyclic thiourea functionalized organic dye, coded AZ5, for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) was demonstrated. Due to its intensive absorption in ultraviolet region, AZ5 could compensate the loss of light harvest induced by triiodide, thereby the short-circuit photocurrent density ($J_{sc}$) was increased for co-sensitized (N719+AZ5) DSSC. Moreover, the electron recombination and dye aggregation were retarded upon N719 cocktail co-sensitized with AZ5, thus the open-circuit voltage ($V_{oc}$) of co-sensitized device was enhanced as well. The increased $J_{sc}$ (17.9 $mA{\cdot}cm^{-2}$) combined with the enhanced $V_{oc}$ (698 mV) ultimately resulted in an improved power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 7.91% for co-sensitized DSSC, which was raised by 8.6% in comparison with that of N719 (PCE = 7.28%) sensitized alone. In addition, co-sensitized DSSC exhibited a better stability than that of N719 sensitized device probably due to the depression of dye desorption.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.29 no.12
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• pp.819-823
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• 2016

DSSC (dye-sensitized solar cell) is expected to be one of the next-generation photovoltaics because of its environment-friendly and low-cost properties. However, commercialization of DSSC is difficult because of the electrolyte leakage. We propose thermal curable base on silicon resin and apply a unit cell and large area ($200{\times}200mm$) dye-sensitized solar cell. The resin aimed at sealing of DSSC and gives a promising resolution for sealing of practical DSSC. In result, the photoelectric conversion efficiency of the unit cell and the module was 6.63% and 5.49%, respectively. In the durability test result, the photoelectric conversion efficiency of the module during 500, 1,000, 1,500 and 2,000 hours was 0.73%, 0.73%, 1.82% and 2.36% respectively. It was confirmed that the photoelectric conversion efficiency characteristics are constant. We have developed encapsulation material of thermal curing method excellent in chemical resistance. A sealing material was applied to the dye-sensitized solar cell and it solved the problem of durability the dye-sensitized solar cell. Sealing material may be applied to verify the possibility of practical application of the dye-sensitized solar cell.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.11a
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• pp.53.2-53.2
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• 2011

Dye-sensitized solar cells(DSSCs) have been recognized as an alternative to the conventional p-n junction solar cells because of their simple fabrication process, low production cost, and transparency. A typical DSSC consists of a transparent conductive oxide (TCO) electrode, a dye-sensitized oxide semiconductor nanoparticle layer, liquid redox electrolyte, and a Pt-counter electrode. In dye-sensitized solar cells, charge recombination processes at interfaces between coducting glass, $TiO_2$, dye, and electrolyte play an important role in limiting the photon-to-electron conversion efficiency. A layer of ZTO thin film less than ~200nm in thickness, as a blocking layer, was deposited by DC magnetron sputtering method directly onto the anode electrode to be isolated from the electrolyte in dye-sensitized solar cells(DSCs). This is to prevent the electrons from back-transferring from the electrode to the electrolyte ($I^-/I_3^-$). The presented DSCs were fabricated with working electrode of Ga-doped ZnO glass coated with blocking ZTO layer, dye-attached nanoporous $TiO_2$ layer, gel electrolyte and counter electrode of Pt-deposited GZO glass. The effects of blocking layer were studied with respect to impedance and conversion efficiency of the cells.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.416-418
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• 2008

Dye-sensitized solar cell using transparent conducting oxide as electrode has large resistance such as surface resistance, charge transportation impedance in counter electrode and electrolyte, impedance between each interface. Among that resistances, surface resistance of transparent conducting oxide is relatively large. So the change of transparency has a large effect on internal resistance of dye-sensitized solar cell. Consequently, that change cause to increase or decrease the conversion efficiency. We tried to reduce the surface resistance by laser-scribing. The active area is seperated from total transparent conducting oxide by Nd:YAG laser-scribing. As a result, we achieved the improvement of efficiency about 7% and 11% in case of $0.25cm^2$ and $1.00cm^2$ dye-sensitized solar cells.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.59 no.1
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• pp.144-151
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• 2010

The shadowing effects lead to the serious power losses of the PV module. The shadowing effects are caused by several factors such as leafs, dust, antenna and clouds. The dye-sensitized solar cells are more economical than the conventional silicon solar cell that's why the dye-sensitized solar cells are recently focused on. We carried out research on the efficiency of the dye-sensitized solar cell depending on the level of shadow changing the formula of the circuit. The research on the efficiency of the large dye-sensitized solar cell depending on the level of shadow focused on commercialization was carried out. As the results, it is known that the series and parallel connection method is the best choice for the least losses of PV module assemblies. It is especially known that one more series connection is the best choice for the least losses about shadowing effects and current losses in the series and parallel connection.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.305-308
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• 2007

The field of dye-sensitized solar cell (DSC) is being researched actively at present. Because DSC has several advantages to pass the limits of Si solar cells such as a low manufacturing expense, a simple manufacturing process and its transparency. A lot of researches are underway about materials and processes in the field of dye-sensitized solar cell but its structure has been fixed up as the sandwich structure that both edges are used as positive and negative terminals. But the structure as of present is a factor of decreasing efficiency because the more electrons are recombined the further distance from terminal, considering about the characteristic of dye-sensitized solar cell that electrons generated inside cell are moved by diffusion. In this study, we made experiment on expanding the terminal to shorten internal moving distance of electron and compared the results according to the variation of active area to find out the effect of this trial. As a result, we achieved about 15.5% improvement of maximum power and 0.5% improvement of efficiency from terminal-expanded dye-sensitized solar cell of $2cm^{2}$ active area and concluded that the increasing rate of efficiency is raised as the active area becomes wider.