• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2011.05a
• /
• pp.117.2-117.2
• /
• 2011

Since Gratzel and co-workers developed a new type of solar cell based on the nanocrystalline TiO2 electrode, dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have attracted considerable attention on account of their high solar energy-to-conversion efficiencies (11%), their easy manufacturing process with low cost production compared to conventional p-n junction solar cells. The mechanism of DSSC is based on the injection of electrons from the photoexcited dye into the conduction band of nanocrystalline TiO2. The oxidized dye is reduced by the hole injection process from either the hole counter or electrolyte. Thus, the electronic structures, such as HOMO, LUMO, and HOMO-LUMO gap, of dye molecule in DSSC are deeply related to the electron transfer by photoexcitation and redox potential. To date, high performance and good stability of DSSC based on Ru-dyes as a photosensitizer had been widely addressed in the literatures. DSSC with Ru-bipyridyl complexes (N3 and N719), and the black ruthenium dye have achieved power conversion efficiencies up to 11.2% and 10.4%, respectively. However, the Ru-dyes are facing the problem of manufacturing costs and environmental issues. In order to obtain even cheaper photosensitizers for DSSC, metal-free organic photosensitizers are strongly desired. Metal-free organic dyes offer superior molar extinction coefficients, low cost, and a diversity of molecular structures, compared to conventional Ru-dyes. Recently, novel photosensitizers such as coumarin, merocyanine, cyanine, indoline, hemicyanine, triphenylamine, dialkylaniline, bis(dimethylfluorenyl)-aminophenyl, phenothiazine, tetrahydroquinoline, and carbazole based dyes have achieved solar-to-electrical power conversion efficiencies up to 5-9%. On the other hand, organic dye molecules have large ${\pi}$-conjugated planner structures which would bring out strong molecular stacking in their solid-state and poor solubility in their media. It was well known that the molecular stacking of organic dyes could reduce the electron transfer pathway in opto-electronic devices, significantly. In this paper, we have studied on synthesis and characterization of dendritic organic dyes with different number of electron acceptor/anchoring moieties in the end of dendrimer. The photovoltaic performances and the incident photon-to-current (IPCE) of these dyes were measured to evaluate the effects of the dendritic strucuture on the open-circuit voltage and the short-circuit current.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
• /
• v.27 no.4
• /
• pp.264-268
• /
• 2018

Vertically-aligned $TiO_2$ nanotube electrodes have attracted considerable attention for applications in solar cells, catalysts, and sensors, because of their ideal structure for electron transport and electrolyte diffusion. Here, we prepare vertically-aligned $TiO_2$ nanotube electrodes using a two-step anodization process. The prepared $TiO_2$ nanotube electrodes exhibit uniform pore structures with an inner diameter of ~80-90 nm and wall thickness of ~20-25 nm. In addition, they exhibit an anatase crystal phase after a high-temperature annealing. The annealed $TiO_2$ nanotube electrodes are applied in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) as photoanodes. The fabricated DSSC exhibits conversion efficiencies of 3.46 and 2.15% with liquid- and gel-type electrolytes, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
• /
• v.25 no.4
• /
• pp.282-285
• /
• 2012

It is well known that Zinc Oxide (ZnO) is an attractive material for its various applications. ZnO has been mostly used as a transparent conducting oxide in liquid crystal displays, solar cells due to its advantages of low cost, high productivity, and excellent electrical conductivity. Notably, flexible-dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) based on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrates require low temperature sintering processing conditions. Therefore, low temperature processing conditions have been strongly required for transparent conducting film applications. In this paper, we prepared low temperature-sintered ZnO ceramics employing Li as a sintering aid.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
• /
• v.32 no.7
• /
• pp.2279-2285
• /
• 2011

The geometries, electronic structures and absorption spectra of the two organic triphenylamine-based dyes TA-St-CA and TA-DM-CA, containing identical electron donors and acceptors but the different conjugated bridges, were studied by density functional theory (DFT) at the B3LYP and PBE1PBE levels, respectively. The influence of para-orientating methoxyl units on the electronic structures and light absorption properties of the dyes and the consequent photovoltaic performance of the dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) were investigated in detail. The results indicate that the introduction of the para-orientating methoxyl units into the conjugated bridge induces the increased absorption wavelength as well as the more negative EHOMO corresponding to the bigger driving force $(E_{I^-/I^-_3}-E_{HOMO})$ for dye reduction, which together improve the photovoltaic performance of TA-DM-CA, although there is a decline of the open circuit voltage caused by the more negative $E_{LUMO}$.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.15 no.6
• /
• pp.4013-4018
• /
• 2014

A 0.45 $cm^2$ DSSC device with a glass/FTO/blocking layer/$TiO_2$/N719(dye)/electrolyte/50 nm-Pt/50 nm-Au/FTO/glass was prepared to examine the stability of the Au/Pt bilayered counter electrode (CE) with electrolyte and the energy conversion efficiency (ECE) of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). For comparison, a 100 nm-thick Pt only CE DSSC was also prepared using the same method. The photovoltaic properties, such as the short circuit current density ($J_{sc}$), open circuit voltage ($V_{oc}$), fill factor (FF), and ECE, were checked using a solar simulator and potentiostat with time after assembling the DSSC. The microstructure of the Au/Pt bilayer was examined by optical microscopy after 0~25 minutes. The ECE of the Pt only CE-employed DSSC was 4.60 %, which did not show time dependence. On the other hand, for the Au/Pt CE DSSC, the ECEs after 0, 5 and 15 minutes were 5.28 %, 3.64 % and 2.09 %, respectively. The corrosion areas of the Au/Pt CE determined by optical microscopy after 0, 5, and 25 minutes were 0, 21.92 and 34.06 %. These results confirmed that the ECE and catalytic activity of Au/Pt CE decreased drastically with time. Therefore, a Au/Pt CE-employed DSSC may be superior to the Pt only CE-employed one immediately after integration of the device, but it would degrade drastically with time.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.48 no.4
• /
• pp.506-510
• /
• 2010

Electron recombinations in electrolyte solution reduce light-to-energy conversion efficiency at the nanoporous electrode surface of dye sensitized solar cells. In this study, we improved the conversion efficiency using an energy barrier at the nanoporous electrode surface to control the recombination process. The energy barrier was formed by coating nanoporous $TiO_2$ electrode with $Nb_2O_5$ material. We investigated the influence of energy barrier on the cell efficiency depending on the coating thickness. Nanoporous $TiO_2$ electrode was coated about 5 nm thickness by 12 times coatings, and so the coating layer was grown about 0.417 nm for every time. Enhancement of conversion efficiency from 2.55% to 4.25% was achieved at 0.834 nm coating thickness, and it was believed as the optimum thickness for minimizing the electron recombination process in our experimental system.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
• /
• v.34 no.4
• /
• pp.1081-1088
• /
• 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 KIEE Conference
• /
• 2008.07a
• /
• pp.1236-1237
• /
• 2008

Carbon nanotube(CNT) materials are expected a stable current collector without the phenomena such as oxidizing and melting of grid by redox electrolyte and with low cost. In this paper, two types of dye-sensitized solar cells(DSSCs) with Pt abd CNT as a counter electrode were fabricated, then the energy conversion efficiency characteristics were investigated. The main purpose of this study is to find out the possibility of CNT material as cheap current collector of a large scale DSSC module. In addition, the Hall coefficient were measured by using FCM analysis.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2011.02a
• /
• pp.355-355
• /
• 2011

최근 석유 자원의 고갈로 인하여 요구되는 대체 에너지 개발의 필요성이 대두되고 있다. 그 중 태양에너지는 지구의 생명체가 살아가는 에너지의 근원으로서 매초 800~1000 W에 달하는 에너지양으로 볼 때 태양은 인류가 가장 풍부하게 활용할 수 있는 에너지원이다. 태양에너지를 이용한 염료감응형 태양전지(Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells, DSSCs)는 제조원가를 낮출 수 있고, 유리 전극을 이용한 투명한 태양전지를 제조할 수 있어 건물의 유리창등으로 응용할 수 있는 장점이있다. 이러한 태양전지의 에너지 변환 효율을 증가시키기 위한 방법으로 흡착된 염료에서 발생되는 광전자가 전해질의 산화, 환원되는 요오드 이온(I-/I3-)과의 재결합(recombination)현상으로 인해 광전변환효율이 떨어지는 현상이 발생한다. 이에 본 연구는 TiO2 전극 위에 높은 밴드 갭(band-gap)을 가지는 Al2O3 박막을 TriMethylAluminium(TMA) 전구체를 이용한 Atomic Layer Deposition(ALD) 공정을 사용하여 증착, 재결합 방지 효과에 대한 연구를 진행하였다.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
• /
• v.19 no.1
• /
• pp.50-53
• /
• 2009

Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) were synthesized on different substrates (bare Si and $SiO_2$/Si substrate) to investigate dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) applications as counter electrode materials. The synthesis of MWNTs samples used identical conditions of a Fe catalyst created by thermal chemical vapor deposition at $900^{\circ}C$. It was found that the diameter of the MWNTs on the Si substrate sample is approximately $5{\sim}10nm$ larger than that of a $SiO_2$/Si substrate sample. Moreover, MWNTs on a Si substrate sample were well-crystallized in terms of their Raman spectrum. In addition, the MWNTs on Si substrate sample show an enhanced redox reaction, as observed through a smaller interface resistance and faster reaction rates in the EIS spectrum. The results show that DSSCs with a MWNT counter electrode on a bare Si substrate sample demonstrate energy conversion efficiency in excess of 1.4 %.