DEVELOPMENT OF TITANIUM DIOXIDE PHOTOELECTRODE MATERIAL FOR DYE SOLAR CELL

• Main Author: ZAINE, SITI NUR AZELLA
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: TP Chemical technology
• Online Access: http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/8953/1/2012%20Master%20-%20Development%20Of%20Titanium%20Dioxide%20Photoelectrode%20Material%20For%20Dye%20Solar%20Cell.pdf; http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/8953/
• Institution: Universiti Teknologi Petronas

Dye solar cell (DSC) has advantage over other solar generation; high possibilities for improving parameters, compatible with flexible substrate, lower productions cost and work even in diffuse light. However, DSC still suffers from low efficiency due to the competition between electron generation and recombination. The aim of the study is to develop TiOz photoelectrocle material namely nanoparticles, aggregates and aggregates/nanoparticles composite that promise better performance efficiency of DSC. The effect of two critical parameters; percentage of water in ethanol solution and calcination temperature on the morphology and microstructure of the synthesized TiOz aggregates have been investigated using SEM, XRD and BET. TiOz photoelectrode films were prepared by screen printing technique on FTO glass, dye-coated with N719, and assembled in sandwich configuration with platinized conducting electrode to form DSC. The performance of the integrated DSCs was compared based on UV-Vis absorption and I-V characteristic under simulated AM1.5 sunlight illumination with 100 mW/cm2 light output. Synthesized TiOz nanoparticles photelectrode materials exhibit an efficiency of 3.545%, while aggregates synthesized with 0.9 vol% of water shows higher efficiency of 3.915%. The optimum calcination temperature was found to be at 45o·c. Higher efficiency of over 4% can be achieved by incorporating 20% nanoparticle in aggregates films synthesized using 0.9 vol% of water content and calcined at 45o·c, producing well formed spherical aggregates with mean size of 0.45 11m consisting of 15±3 nm of nanocrystallite. The submicron-sized aggregates can induce the light scattering while nanocrystallites can increase the surface area for dye chemisorption. The incorporated nanoparticles in aggregates films results in better connectivity thus improves the transport properties. The breakthrough in hierarchical structured photoelectrode material could spur the development of higher performance DSC to challenge the high cost of commercially available silicon-based solar cells.