KR20120128089A - Dye-sensitized solar cell having improvied efficiency using color on backside, and window frame comprising the same - Google Patents

Abstract

Dye-sensitized solar cells with improved efficiency using backside coloring and windows comprising the same are provided.
The dye-sensitized solar cell according to the present invention is a dye-sensitized solar cell in which two substrates are spaced apart at predetermined intervals to face each other, and an electrolyte is filled between the upper substrate and the lower substrate, and is curable on the outer side of any one of the substrates. A first coating layer comprising a material; And a paint layer applied on the first coating layer, and the dye-sensitized solar cell according to the present invention may apply a white coating layer on a back surface of a substrate, and apply paint of various colors on the coating layer. . In particular, the aesthetics are not only enhanced through the back coloring, but the present invention can increase the efficiency of the battery by back scattering of light, as compared with the prior art in which the light irradiated from the front penetrates the back of the substrate. Can be.

Description

Dye-sensitized solar cell having improvied efficiency using color on backside, and window frame comprising the same}

The present invention relates to a dye-sensitized solar cell having improved efficiency by using a backside coloring and a window comprising the same, and more particularly, by applying a white coating layer on the back side of a substrate, and then implementing various colors on the white coating layer. The present invention relates to a dye-sensitized solar cell having improved efficiency using backside coloring, which enhances aesthetics and at the same time improves efficiency by backscattering the light irradiated onto the front surface by a colored layer, and a window including the same.

A typical dye-sensitized solar cell is a dye-sensitized solar cell using nanoparticle titanium oxide, which was developed by Michael Gratzel of the Swiss National Lausanne Institute of Technology in 1991. This dye-sensitized solar cell has the advantage that the manufacturing cost is cheaper than the conventional silicon solar cell, and the electrode is transparent, so that it can be applied to a glass wall or a glass greenhouse of a building, but the photoelectric conversion efficiency is low, and thus the practical application is limited. The dye-sensitized solar cell is composed of a transparent conductive electrode coated with a nanocrystalline oxide film on which dye molecules are adsorbed, a counter electrode coated with metal platinum, and an electrolyte that functions as a redox. The dye-sensitized solar cell having such a configuration is used by having one dye-sensitized solar cell on one substrate or by connecting a plurality of dye-sensitized solar cells on one substrate to be used in a module form. The dye-sensitized solar cell module in which a plurality of such dye-sensitized solar cells are connected and installed is mainly applied to the field of building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV).

1 and 2 are a front view and a cross-sectional view of a dye-sensitized solar cell according to the prior art.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, a dye-sensitized solar cell manufactured by using a series module of a large area Z-series type is disclosed. The dye-sensitized solar cell module has a sandwich structure in which the first substrate 2 and the second substrate 4 are bonded to each other as two plate-shaped transparent electrodes, and is discretized on the rear surface of the first substrate 2 as one transparent electrode. A conductive first electrode 6 made of titanium or the like, and a second electrode 4 made of platinum or the like on a second substrate 4, which is another transparent electrode, and the first electrode ( 6) A plurality of unit cells are formed in which the electrolyte 18 is filled in the space between the first substrate 2 and the second substrate 4 provided with the second electrode 8, respectively. The cells are connected to each other by the metal grid 10 and are installed. At this time, since the grid 10 is typically vulnerable to the electrolyte 18, the outside of the grid 10 is wrapped with a sealing member 14 to prevent contact with the electrolyte 18, and the entire dye-sensitized solar cell module The wall surface of the dye-sensitized solar cell positioned outside of the dye-sensitized solar cell is closed with the sealing member 14 to prevent the electrolyte 18 from leaking to the outside. In addition, the etching unit 16 is provided on the conductive film 22 coated on the surface of the substrates 2 and 4 adjacent to the grid 10 provided between the dye-sensitized solar cells, thereby providing the inside of the dye-sensitized solar cell. Prevent electrons from flowing in parallel to other dye-sensitized solar cells. Meanwhile, the metal grid 10 is a boundary surface of a cell which is a dye-sensitized solar cell, and is connected to extend from one side wall of the cell to the other side wall opposite to the cell, that is, an electrolyte filled in a cell, that is, a dye-sensitized solar cell ( 18) is prevented from being transferred to other dye-sensitized solar cells. Therefore, in order to inject the electrolyte 18 into each of the dye-sensitized solar cells, two electrolyte injection holes 12 are provided for each dye-sensitized solar cell. The dye-sensitized solar cell of the above-described structure is provided in a building window or the like, and converts light emitted to the outside into electricity. However, dyes that become colored in dye-sensitized solar cells generally exhibit a red color, the most common of which is a dye called N719. The dye-sensitized solar cell manufactured using the red dye as described above has reddish brown color. Therefore, when the dye-sensitized solar cell is used in a building window or the like, the light transmitted therefrom also has a reddish color. Therefore, the user may feel more fatigue in the red-based light compared to the blue-based light and there is a problem that the color of the dye is the same on both the front and the back of the battery.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a dye-sensitized solar cell and a window including the same, which can implement various colors and have excellent efficiency.

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention is a dye-sensitized solar cell in which two substrates are spaced apart at predetermined intervals to face each other, and an electrolyte is filled between the upper substrate and the lower substrate, and on the outer side of any one of the substrates. A first coating layer comprising a curable material; And it provides a dye-sensitized solar cell, the efficiency is improved by using the back coloring, characterized in that it comprises a coating layer applied on the first coating layer.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the first coating layer has a white color, and the coating layer includes the same curable material as the first coating layer.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the curable material is a UV curable material, and the first coating layer and the coating layer are simultaneously cured by UV irradiation once after application. In addition, the first coating layer has a thickness of 10 to 100 ㎛.

The present invention also provides a window comprising the dye-sensitized solar cell described above.

In the dye-sensitized solar cell according to the present invention, a white coating layer is coated on the back of the substrate, and a coating of various colors may be applied to the coating layer. In particular, the aesthetics are not only enhanced through the back coloring, but the present invention can increase the efficiency of the battery by back scattering of light, as compared with the prior art in which the light irradiated from the front penetrates the back of the substrate. Can be.

1 and 2 are a front view and a cross-sectional view of a dye-sensitized solar cell according to the prior art.
3 is a cross-sectional view of a dye-sensitized solar cell according to an embodiment of the present invention.
4 and 5 are front and rear photographs of the dye-sensitized solar cell according to the embodiment of the present invention, respectively.
6 is a result of comparing the efficiency of the dye-sensitized solar cell according to the embodiment and the comparative example.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings. The following embodiments are provided as examples to ensure that the spirit of the present invention can be fully conveyed to those skilled in the art. Therefore, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described below, but may be embodied in other forms. In the drawings, the width, length, thickness, etc. of the components may be exaggerated for convenience. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout.

The dye-sensitized solar cell according to the present invention is capable of realizing various colors in a dye-sensitized solar cell by applying a white layer on one surface of a transparent substrate such as glass and coating a variety of colors on the white layer.

Hereinafter, the dye-sensitized solar cell according to the present invention will be described in more detail.

3 is a cross-sectional view of a dye-sensitized solar cell according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 3, the dye-sensitized solar cell according to the present invention has a structure in which upper and lower substrates 331 and 331 are spaced at predetermined intervals, and an electrolyte 330 is filled in the upper and lower substrates 331 and 332. . That is, the dye-sensitized solar cell according to the present invention is adsorbed on two electrodes (semiconductor and counter electrode) facing each other on a transparent substrate such as glass, a TiO ₂ layer laminated on a semiconductor electrode, and the TiO ₂ layer. It has a structure consisting of a dye and an electrolyte layer filling the electrode, which is the same as the conventional dye-sensitized solar cell structure described in FIGS.

However, the dye-sensitized solar cell according to the present invention is provided with a separate first coating layer 310 on the outer side of either the upper or lower substrate. The first coating layer is preferably white because the first coating layer is not only used as a base layer coated with various colors of paint, but also performs a function of reversely scattering transmitted light. . In one embodiment of the present invention, the first coating layer 310 is a curable material, it is preferable that the material is cured by light such as UV. In addition, the thickness of the first coating layer 310 is preferably 10 to 100 ㎛, if the thickness of the first coating layer 310 is less than the above range, it is difficult to expect a sufficient backscattering effect, if the above range, There is a problem that the curing time is long due to the excessive thickness. The paint layer 320 is coated on the white first coating layer 310. The paint layer 320 may have a predetermined color, whereby various patterns of colors may be implemented on the first coating layer 310. Dye-sensitized solar cell according to the present invention can expect a double operation effect through the first coating layer and the coating layer applied sequentially.

In addition, the paint layer 320 of the dye-sensitized solar cell according to the present invention preferably comprises a curable material similar to the first coating layer 310, more preferably the same kind as the first coating layer 310 It is preferable that it is a curable substance of. Accordingly, the dye-sensitized solar cell according to the present invention shortens the process time by sequentially applying the first coating layer 310 and the paint layer 320 and curing them all at once.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the cured material is a UV curing agent, and the coating layer 320 and the first coating layer 310 thereunder is cured by UV irradiation for a very short time (for example within a few seconds) to the back of the substrate Adheres to In particular, the present invention minimizes the effect of UV irradiation into the dye-sensitized solar cell through a photocuring method performed in a short time, and also removes the effect of thermal modification due to the thermal curing method. In particular, when the glass substrate thickness of the general dye-sensitized solar cell is 2.2 mm or more, and the thickness of the first coating layer 310 is 10 to 100 μm, the coating layer is cured by UV irradiation, and thus the influence of the substrate internal material is not affected. .

The dye-sensitized solar cell according to the present invention overcomes the limitations of the monotonous pattern of the conventional dye-sensitized solar cell by patterning a variety of colors on the back side of the substrate, and at the same time, the effect of efficiency increase through the coated coating layer and the paint layer on the back side. Achieve at the same time. In another embodiment of the present invention, the first coating layer may function as a functional layer for back scattering of light irradiated with a transparent color.

The present invention provides a window, that is, a building-integrated solar cell (BIPV) including the dye-sensitized solar cell described above, and in particular, due to the coloring of the rear surface minimizes aesthetics and inconvenience of the user and improves efficiency.

Example

According to the present invention, the efficiency of the back-color dye-sensitized solar cell was measured. To this end, a 300 x 300 mm dye-sensitized solar cell unit cell was prepared, wherein the unit cell active area was 539.12 cm 2. One of these (example) laminated the paint layer in various forms on the white coating layer and the white coating layer according to the present invention. The front and rear surfaces of the dye-sensitized solar cell of the embodiment according to the embodiment of the present invention are as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, respectively.

As a comparative example, a dye-sensitized solar cell having the same size and active area as in Example 1, in which a coating layer was not laminated on the rear surface, was prepared.

6 is a result of comparing the efficiency of the dye-sensitized solar cell according to the embodiment and the comparative example.

Referring to Figure 6, after the white coating layer is applied, it can be seen that the dye-sensitized solar cell of the present invention in which the colored layers of various colors are applied to the back side, all the characteristics are improved. In other words, it can be seen that the dye-sensitized solar cell of the present invention which realizes various colors on the white coating layer after applying the white coating layer on the back side of the substrate shows a considerably excellent cell efficiency.

While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it is evident that many alternatives, modifications and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Therefore, the true technical protection scope of the present invention will be defined by the technical spirit of the appended claims.

Claims (6)

A dye-sensitized solar cell in which two substrates are spaced apart at predetermined intervals to face each other, and an electrolyte is filled between the upper substrate and the lower substrate, the first coating layer including a curable material on an outer side of any one of the substrates; And a paint layer applied on the first coating layer. The dye-sensitized solar cell having improved efficiency by using backside coloring. The method of claim 1,
The first coating layer is characterized in that the white. Dye-sensitized solar cell with improved efficiency using backside coloring. The method of claim 2,
The paint layer comprises the same curable material as the first coating layer, dye-sensitized solar cell with improved efficiency using the back coloring. The method of claim 3, wherein
The curable material is a UV curable material, characterized in that the first coating layer and the coating layer is cured at the same time by a single UV irradiation after application, dye-sensitized solar cell improved efficiency using the back coloring. The method of claim 4, wherein
The first coating layer is characterized in that the thickness of 10 to 100 ㎛, dye-sensitized solar cell improved efficiency by using the back coloring. A window comprising a dye-sensitized solar cell according to any one of claims 1 to 5.

Images