US20110030792A1 - Solar to electric energy conversion device - Google Patents

Solar to electric energy conversion device Download PDF

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US20110030792A1
US20110030792A1 US12/988,451 US98845109A US2011030792A1 US 20110030792 A1 US20110030792 A1 US 20110030792A1 US 98845109 A US98845109 A US 98845109A US 2011030792 A1 US2011030792 A1 US 2011030792A1
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solar
electric energy
energy conversion
conversion device
polymer
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Hernan Miguez
Silvia Colodrero
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    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01G—CAPACITORS; CAPACITORS, RECTIFIERS, DETECTORS, SWITCHING DEVICES, LIGHT-SENSITIVE OR TEMPERATURE-SENSITIVE DEVICES OF THE ELECTROLYTIC TYPE
    • H01G9/00—Electrolytic capacitors, rectifiers, detectors, switching devices, light-sensitive or temperature-sensitive devices; Processes of their manufacture
    • H01G9/20—Light-sensitive devices
    • H01G9/209—Light trapping arrangements
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01G—CAPACITORS; CAPACITORS, RECTIFIERS, DETECTORS, SWITCHING DEVICES, LIGHT-SENSITIVE OR TEMPERATURE-SENSITIVE DEVICES OF THE ELECTROLYTIC TYPE
    • H01G9/00—Electrolytic capacitors, rectifiers, detectors, switching devices, light-sensitive or temperature-sensitive devices; Processes of their manufacture
    • H01G9/0029—Processes of manufacture
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01G—CAPACITORS; CAPACITORS, RECTIFIERS, DETECTORS, SWITCHING DEVICES, LIGHT-SENSITIVE OR TEMPERATURE-SENSITIVE DEVICES OF THE ELECTROLYTIC TYPE
    • H01G9/00—Electrolytic capacitors, rectifiers, detectors, switching devices, light-sensitive or temperature-sensitive devices; Processes of their manufacture
    • H01G9/20—Light-sensitive devices
    • H01G9/2027—Light-sensitive devices comprising an oxide semiconductor electrode
    • H01G9/2031—Light-sensitive devices comprising an oxide semiconductor electrode comprising titanium oxide, e.g. TiO2
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01G—CAPACITORS; CAPACITORS, RECTIFIERS, DETECTORS, SWITCHING DEVICES, LIGHT-SENSITIVE OR TEMPERATURE-SENSITIVE DEVICES OF THE ELECTROLYTIC TYPE
    • H01G9/00—Electrolytic capacitors, rectifiers, detectors, switching devices, light-sensitive or temperature-sensitive devices; Processes of their manufacture
    • H01G9/20—Light-sensitive devices
    • H01G9/2027—Light-sensitive devices comprising an oxide semiconductor electrode
    • H01G9/2036—Light-sensitive devices comprising an oxide semiconductor electrode comprising mixed oxides, e.g. ZnO covered TiO2 particles
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01G—CAPACITORS; CAPACITORS, RECTIFIERS, DETECTORS, SWITCHING DEVICES, LIGHT-SENSITIVE OR TEMPERATURE-SENSITIVE DEVICES OF THE ELECTROLYTIC TYPE
    • H01G9/00—Electrolytic capacitors, rectifiers, detectors, switching devices, light-sensitive or temperature-sensitive devices; Processes of their manufacture
    • H01G9/20—Light-sensitive devices
    • H01G9/2059—Light-sensitive devices comprising an organic dye as the active light absorbing material, e.g. adsorbed on an electrode or dissolved in solution
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H10—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES; ELECTRIC SOLID-STATE DEVICES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • H10K—ORGANIC ELECTRIC SOLID-STATE DEVICES
    • H10K85/00—Organic materials used in the body or electrodes of devices covered by this subclass
    • H10K85/30—Coordination compounds
    • H10K85/341—Transition metal complexes, e.g. Ru(II)polypyridine complexes
    • H10K85/344—Transition metal complexes, e.g. Ru(II)polypyridine complexes comprising ruthenium
    • Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
    • Y02—TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
    • Y02E—REDUCTION OF GREENHOUSE GAS [GHG] EMISSIONS, RELATED TO ENERGY GENERATION, TRANSMISSION OR DISTRIBUTION
    • Y02E10/00—Energy generation through renewable energy sources
    • Y02E10/50—Photovoltaic [PV] energy
    • Y02E10/542—Dye sensitized solar cells
    • Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
    • Y02—TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
    • Y02P—CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES IN THE PRODUCTION OR PROCESSING OF GOODS
    • Y02P70/00—Climate change mitigation technologies in the production process for final industrial or consumer products
    • Y02P70/50—Manufacturing or production processes characterised by the final manufactured product

Definitions

  • the present invention relates to a solar-to-electric energy conversion device having a light absorbing electrode coupled to a porous photonic crystal or multilayer Bragg reflector.
  • the porous reflecting element is used to enhance the power conversion efficiency of the solar cell device by selectively increasing the optical absorption in the electrode.
  • DSSC dye-sensitized solar cells
  • Grätzel cells U.S. Pat. No. 5,084,365.
  • the DSSC combine a solid wide band gap semiconductor with a liquid ionic conductor.
  • the former usually consists of one electrode made of a layer of a few micrometers of titanium dioxide nanocrystals (nc-TiO 2 , average crystal size around 20 nm), on whose surface a dye, typically a Ruthenium polypyridyl complex, is adsorbed.
  • This nanocrystalline film is deposited onto a conductive, transparent substrate, typically indium tin oxide (ITO) or fluorinated SnO 2 , and soaked with a redox electrolyte, typically containing I ⁇ /I 3 ⁇ ion pairs.
  • This electrolyte is also in contact with a colloidal platinum catalyst coated counter-electrode.
  • Sunlight is harvested by the dye producing photo-excited electrons that are injected into the conduction band of the nanocrystalline semiconductor network, and then into the conducting substrate.
  • the redox electrolyte reduces the oxidized dye and transports the electron acceptors species (I 3 ⁇ ) to the counter-electrode.
  • a record value of power conversion efficiency of 11% has been reported, although good quality cells typically provide between 5% and 8%.
  • Grätzel cells Current efficiencies of the different types of Grätzel cells are still low compared to silicon based devices, which have an average power conversion efficiency of 15%, there is no doubt that they have a great potential for different reasons.
  • the Grätzel cells can be made transparent, which implies they can be used as coatings on windows.
  • the cells also have a potential to be made flexible, which would simplify integration on different types of surfaces.
  • they are usually made of less expensive materials than silicon, and there is a wide variety of compounds (semiconductors, dyes, electrolytes) that can be used to build the cells.
  • a photonic crystal is primarily classified depending on the number of spatial dimensions along which there exists a periodic modulation of the refractive index, then being divided in one-dimensional (1D), two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) photonic crystals.
  • One of their most representative features is their ability to diffract light.
  • WO 2008102046 is disclosed a multilayer structure made of nanoparticles behaving as a one-dimensional photonic crystal for use in optical chemical sensing devices or frequency selective filters.
  • the present invention features a solar-to-electric energy conversion device based on a light absorbing electrode coupled to a nanoparticle based one dimensional photonic crystal.
  • the function of the latter is to localize the incident light within the electrode thus enhancing the optical absorption and the power conversion efficiency of dye-sensitized, organic (polymer based or hybrid) devices.
  • the photonic crystal comprises alternating layers possessing different index of refraction and can be easily integrated into the cell. The alternation of layers of different refractive index provides the structure with one-dimensional photonic crystal properties necessary to efficiently localize the incident light within the absorbing layer.
  • Each layer in the multilayer photonic crystal is made of nanoparticles and its porosity allows the electrolytes and the absorbing compounds to flow through the multilayer. This ensures good electrical contact with the rest of the components, while not affecting the charge transport through the cell.
  • a method for manufacturing a solar to electric energy conversion device comprises the following steps:
  • steps e) and g) could be replaced with the respective steps e′) infiltrating the structure with a conducting polymer and g′) sealing the electrode and counterelectrode, thus forming a cell.
  • a porous tandem multilayer structure having photonic crystal properties over a larger range of wavelengths on the semi-conducting layer, thus forming a structure of alternated nanoparticle layers of controlled thicknesses, so that a periodic or quasi-periodic spatial modulation of a refractive index across the periodic structure is achieved.
  • Depositing of the multilayer can be done by various techniques for example by such techniques as doctor blade, dip coating, spin-coating or by the Langmuir-Blodgett technique. Ink jet printing would also be a possible depositing technique.
  • the solar to electric energy conversion device having a structure of alternated nanoparticle layers of controlled thickness, so that a periodic or quasi-periodic spatial modulation of the refractive index across the multilayer is achieved can be a dye-sensitized solar cell, a hybrid solar cell or a polymer solar cell.
  • the suspensions of nanoparticles could be different suspensions of nanoparticles or suspensions having the nanoparticles of the same chemical composition but different size distribution.
  • FIG. 1 a - c show the design and microstructure of a dye-sensitized solar cell coupled to a porous nanoparticle based 1-D photonic crystal.
  • FIG. 1( a ) shows a scheme of the 1D PC based solar cell showing the illumination through the dye coated titanium dioxide layer.
  • FIG. 1( b ) shows an FE-SEM image showing a cross-section of a cleaved nc-TiO 2 —SiO 2 periodic structure (lower vertical line) grown on top of a dye-sensitized nc-TiO 2 electrode (top vertical line). Transparent conducting substrate is placed at the top of this picture.
  • FIG. 1( c ) shows a magnified view of the silica (spherical particles) and titania (smaller crystallites) nanocolloids composing the 1-D photonic crystal.
  • FIG. 2 a - b show microstructures of a dye-sensitized solar cell coupled to a tandem multilayer structure.
  • FIG. 2( a ) shows an FESEM image corresponding to a cross-section of a cleaved nc-TiO2—SiO2 tandem structure (vertical white line) deposited onto a dye coated titanium dioxide electrode (vertical dot line). A transparent conducting substrate is placed at the top of this picture.
  • FIG. 2( b ) shows a magnified view of the tandem multilayer structure built on top the electrode. Two photonic crystals of different lattice parameter made each one of six alternate layers can be clearly distinguished. The lattice parameters are 220 ⁇ 10 nm (photonic crystal denoted as PhC1) and 150 ⁇ 10 nm (photonic crystal denoted as PhC2), respectively.
  • FIG. 3 shows current voltage curves under 1 sun illumination (100 mW/cm2) of a 350 nm thick dye-sensitized nc-TiO2 electrode coupled to different 1D photonic crystals.
  • the lattice parameter in each case is 140 ⁇ 10 nm (squares) and 180 ⁇ 10 nm (triangles).
  • the TiO2 layer thickness is around 85 ⁇ 5 nm.
  • the IV curve of a reference cell with the same electrode thickness is also plotted (black circles).
  • FIG. 4 a - b show optical response of the dye-sensitized electrode coupled to a porous nanoparticle based 1-D photonic crystal.
  • (a) Reflectance spectra of a 415 nm thick film of nc-TiO 2 followed by a 3 period thick 1D photonic crystal composed of 95 ⁇ 5 nm silica and 75 ⁇ 5 nm titania films measured under frontal (solid line) and rear (dashed line, shaded in red) illumination conditions.
  • ⁇ 1 0.775 microns
  • ⁇ 2 0.575 microns
  • ⁇ 3 0.512 microns.
  • FIG. 5 a - f show spectral response of the short circuit photocurrent of dye-sensitized electrodes of different thickness coupled to the same 1D photonic crystal.
  • IPCE photon to current conversion efficiency
  • FIG. 6 a - d show current density versus voltage bias curves for the dye-sensitized electrode coupled to different 1D photonic crystals.
  • the IV curve of a reference cell having the same nc-TiO 2 electrode thickness is also shown (filled diamonds).
  • (b), (c) and (d) display the specular reflectance spectrum of each one of the cells versus the absorption spectrum of the ruthenium based dye (black solid line, in arbitrary units).
  • FIG. 7 a - c show design and microstructure of a dye-sensitized solar cell coupled to a porous nanoparticle based 1-D photonic crystal.
  • the manufacturing process for an electric energy conversion device will be described in further detail.
  • the steps of preparing a dye-sensitized solar cell can comprise the below steps.
  • the metal oxide that forms the layer described in a) can be made of any compounds attainable in the shape of crystallites with sizes between 2 nm and 300 nm, for example between 5 and 100 nm.
  • the compound is selected among the following group: TiO 2 , SnO 2 , CeO 2 , ZnO, Nb 2 O 5 .
  • One implementation comprises the oxide TiO 2 chosen due to its particular physical-chemical properties.
  • the nanoparticles mentioned in b) can be made of any compound attainable in the shape of nanoparticles with sizes between 1 nm and 100 nm.
  • the nanoparticles used are those, or a mixture of those, that allow a refractive index contrast between alternate layers forming the multilayer to be attained.
  • the composition of the nanoparticles can be in the form of metal oxides, metal halides, nitrides, carbides, chalcogenides, metals, semiconductors, polymers or a mixture of those.
  • the materials forming the nanoparticles can be selected among any of the following list of compounds either in its amorphous or its crystalline form: SiO 2 , TiO 2 , SnO 2 , ZnO, Nb 2 O 5 , CeO 2 , Fe 2 O 3 , Fe 3 O 4 , V 2 O 5 , Cr 2 O 3 , HfO 2 , MnO 2 , Mn 2 O 3 , Co 3 O 4 , NiO, Al 2 O 3 , In 2 O 3 , SnO 2 . CdS, CdSe, ZnS, ZnSe, Ni. Co, Fe, Ag. Au, Se, Si, and Ge.
  • nanoparticles made of SiO 2 and TiO 2 give rise to a very large refractive index contrast in the multilayer. These nanoparticles are used for the particular realization of the invention shown in examples 1 and 2.
  • the deposition techniques to form the nanoparticle layers forming the multilayer described in c can be any that allows one to attain a layer of nanoparticles with thickness comprised between 1 nm and 1 micron, such as spin-coating, Langmuir-Blodgett or dip-coating.
  • spin-coating is a suitable technique.
  • all layers in the multilayer described in c) are made of nanoparticles of the same material as long as the multilayer presents a spatial modulation of the refractive index in the direction perpendicular to the layers' surface, providing the structure with the desired photonic crystal properties. This can be achieved by controlling the size distribution in the nanoparticles that form each layer, since it will determine the porosity of the layer and hence its refractive index.
  • the multilayer structure deposited onto the semiconductor oxide layer as described in c) is built as a tandem multilayer structure.
  • one dimensional photonic crystals with different lattice parameters can be deposited consecutively on the electrode by modifying the concentration of the nanoparticle suspensions that are employed to build each one of them, as described in b).
  • These tandem structures allow one to attain photonic crystal properties in a wider range of wavelengths, so expecting to enhance the optical absorption and the power conversion efficiency of the cells coupled to these structures with respect to those using a single photonic crystal.
  • FIG. 2 it is shown a cross-section image corresponding to a titanium dioxide electrode coupled to a tandem multilayer structure made of two photonic crystals with different lattice parameter.
  • the dispersions or suspensions which are used as precursors to deposit the thin nanoparticle layers that form the multilayer employ as liquid dispersion medium any dispersant of the nanoparticles.
  • the liquid medium is volatile.
  • This liquid can be selected from among the group of water, alcohols, or alicyclic, aromatic, or aliphatic hydrocarbons, for example water, ethanol, ethyleneglycol and methanol, pure or mixed in any proportion are used.
  • the dye mentioned in e) and employed to sensitize the structure described in d) can be any dye capable of absorbing part of the solar spectrum and of transferring the photo-generated charge to the semiconductor oxide layer described in a).
  • the dye can be selected among the group of dyes containing an atom of ruthenium in its molecular form.
  • the electrolyte, mentioned in g), employed to infiltrate the cell in order to create electrical contact between the different components, can be any of those used in the field, either in liquid or solid state phase. For example, it may be selected among those that contain mixtures of ions I ⁇ /I 3 ⁇ .
  • a solar cell fabricated following the procedures described above, will show a higher solar-to-electric power conversion efficiency than a solar cell of similar characteristics (materials, compounds, dye loading, and electrode thickness) but lacking integration of a nanoparticle based one dimensional photonic crystal. This is illustrated in the examples provided.
  • Nanocrystalline TiO 2 particles are synthesised by using a procedure based on the hydrolysis of titanium isopropoxide followed by a peptization process under hydrothermal conditions. 20 ml of titanium isopropoxide (97% Aldrich) was added to 36 ml of Milli-Q water and stirred for 1 hour. Once the alcoxide is hydrolysed, the product is filtered using 1.2 ⁇ m RTTP Millipore membranes, washed several times with distilled water and placed in a teflon reactor with 3.9 ml of tetramethylammonium hydroxide ( ⁇ 2.8M, Fluka).
  • a layer of the abovementioned nanocrystalline TiO 2 particles is deposited onto a 25 mm ⁇ 25 mm conducting transparent substrate (FTO coated glass, Hartford) by a combination of the doctor blade technique and spin-coating.
  • a course rough layer is attained through the former, but a uniform and smooth surface is achieved in the final coating after a drop of a suspension of fine titania particles is spun onto it.
  • total thickness ranges between 300 nm and 2 microns.
  • layers of silica and the same nc-TiO 2 particles were deposited alternately by spin-coating 250 ⁇ l drops of their colloidal suspensions.
  • the titania coated conducting substrate was spun at 100 revolutions per second (rps).
  • Periodic multilayers of different lattice parameter were attained by keeping the TiO 2 nanocrystal concentration constant at 5 wt. % and changing the silica concentration within the range comprised between 1 wt. % and 5 wt. %
  • different rotation speeds comprised between 100 and 150 revolutions per second (rps) were used to control the thickness of each layer in the multilayer.
  • the PC properties of this structure are evident to the naked eye already with four layers deposited due to the high dielectric contrast between the two types of constituent layers. In most cases, a six-layer stack was built. After this, the multilayer coated substrate was thermally annealed at 450° C.
  • the structure is removed from the furnace and immersed in a 0.025% wt. solution of ruthenium bypiridile dye (Rutenio 535-bis TBA, Solaronix) in ethanol overnight in order to assure a proper adsorption of the dye on the nc-TiO 2 surface.
  • the electrode is put into electrical contact with a platinum (Pt-catalyst T/SP, Solaronix) covered counterelectrode by infiltrating a liquid electrolyte in between them.
  • the employed electrolyte is composed of 100 mM I 2 (Aldrich, 99.999%), 100 mM LiI (Aldrich, 99.9%), 600 mM [(C 4 H 9 ) 4 N]I (Aldrich, 98%) and 500 mM 4-tert-butylpyridine (Aldrich, 99%).
  • the solvent used in this case was 3-methoxy propionitrile (Fluka, ⁇ 99%).
  • the porous nature of the periodic multilayer allows the electrolyte to soak the sensitized nc-TiO 2 coating.
  • a thin hot-melt polymeric window Surlyn, 1702 Dupont
  • Cross sections of the cell were imaged using a field emission scanning electron microscope Hitachi 5200 operating at 5 kV and without using any conducting coating.
  • Optical characterization was performed using a Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometer (BRUKER IFS-66) attached to a microscope and operating in reflection mode.
  • a X4 objective with a numerical aperture of 0.1 (light cone angle ⁇ 5.7°) was used to irradiate the solar cell and collect the reflected light at quasi-normal incidence with respect to its surface.
  • a spatial filter was used to selectively detect light from 1 mm 2 circular regions of the sample.
  • IPCE electric current conversion efficiencies
  • a 350 nm thick transparent titanium dioxide electrode is deposited by doctor-blading onto a previously cleaned 25 mm ⁇ 25 mm conducting substrate (fluorine-doped SnO2 conducting glass, Hartford Glass).
  • the anatase particle paste the electrodes are made of was purchased from Solaronix (Ti-Nanoxide HT, Solaronix).
  • the TiO2 layer coated glass so prepared is heated to 450° C. during 30 minutes under oxygen for sintering.
  • nanocrystalline TiO2 particles are synthesised by using a procedure reported by Burnside et al, based on the hydrolysis of titanium isopropoxide followed by a peptization process under hydrothermal conditions.
  • Silicon oxide nanoparticles (20 nm) were purchased from Dupont (LUDOX® TMA colloidal silica, 34 wt. % suspension in H 2 O).
  • the precursor suspensions for the spin-coating process are obtained by suspending TiO 2 or SiO 2 nanoparticles in a mixture of water (21 vol. %) and methanol (79 vol. %).
  • the rotation speed is set at 100 rps during the spin-coating process, and the six layer periodic stack is made from silica (3 wt. % precursor solution) and titania (5 wt. % precursor solution) nanoparticles.
  • the PC properties of this structure are evident to the naked eye already with four layers deposited due to the high dielectric contrast between the two types of constituent layers.
  • the multilayer coated substrate was thermally annealed at 450° C. in order to sinter the titania nanocrystals and remove all water bonded to the particles surface.
  • the structure is removed from the furnace and immersed in a 0.025% wt. solution of ruthenium bypiridile dye (Rutenio 535-bis TBA, Solaronix) in ethanol overnight in order to assure a proper adsorption of the dye on the nc-TiO2 surface.
  • ruthenium bypiridile dye Rutenio 535-bis TBA, Solaronix
  • the electrode is put into electrical contact with a platinum (Pt-catalyst T/SP, Solaronix) covered counterelectrode by infiltrating a liquid electrolyte in between them.
  • the employed electrolyte is composed of 100 mM I 2 (Aldrich, 99.999%), 100 mM LiI (Aldrich, 99.9%), 600 mM [(C 4 H 9 ) 4 N]I (Aldrich, 98%) and 500 mM 4-tert-butylpyridine (Aldrich, 99%).
  • the solvent used in this case was 3-methoxy propionitrile (Fluka, ⁇ 99%).
  • the porous nature of the periodic multilayer allows the electrolyte to soak the sensitized nc-TiO2 coating.
  • a thin hot-melt polymeric window (Surlyn, 1702 Dupont) that softens at 120° C. was used as spacer and to seal the cell at the same time.
  • IV curves were measured under white light illumination coming from a 450 W Xenon lamp (Oriel) plus UV and water IR filters. Currents were registered via a battery-operated potentiostat.
  • the IV curve corresponding to the dye-sensitized solar cell 1 is presented in FIG. 3 (triangles). In this graph it is also plotted the IV curve for a reference dye-sensitized solar cell without photonic crystal (black circles).
  • Example 2 The same fabrication procedure mentioned in Example 1 is employed to build the dye-sensitized solar cell 2 .
  • the six layer periodic stack is made from silica (2 wt. % precursor solution) and titania (5 wt. % precursor solution) nanoparticles.
  • the precursor suspensions for the spin-coating process are obtained by suspending TiO 2 or SiO 2 nanoparticles in a mixture of water (21 vol. %) and methanol (79 vol. %), and the rotation speed is kept at 100 rps during the spin-coating process.
  • the IV curve corresponding to this dye-sensitized solar cell is presented in FIG. 3 (blue squares).
  • the IV curve corresponding to a reference dye-sensitized solar cell is also shown in this graph (black circles).
  • the same electrode thickness has been employed in all cases. It can be clearly seen that the power conversion efficiency of these thin electrodes can be improved up to 6 times by coupling the periodic multilayer structures.
  • Example 2 The same fabrication procedure mentioned in Example 1 is employed to build the dye-sensitized solar cell 3 .
  • the six layer periodic stack is made from silica (3 wt. % precursor solution) and titania (5 wt. % precursor solution) nanoparticles.
  • the precursor suspensions for the spin-coating process are obtained by suspending TiO 2 or SiO 2 nanoparticles in a mixture of water (21 vol. %) and methanol (79 vol. %), and the rotation speed is kept at 100 rps during the spin-coating process.
  • the IV curve and the specular reflectance spectrum corresponding to this dye-sensitized solar cell are presented in FIG. 6 a (circles) and 6 b , respectively.
  • FIG. 6 a circles
  • 6 b is also plotted the absorption spectrum of the ruthenium based dye (black solid line, in arbitrary units). It is clearly seen that the higher efficiency is achieved when the reflectance spectrum of the dye-sensitized solar cell coupled to the photonic crystal overlap the absorption spectrum of the ruthenium based dye.
  • Example 2 The same fabrication procedure mentioned in Example 1 is employed to build the dye-sensitized solar cell 4 .
  • the six layer periodic stack is made from silica (2.5 wt. % precursor solution) and titania (5 wt. % precursor solution) nanoparticles.
  • the precursor suspensions for the spin-coating process are obtained by suspending TiO 2 or SiO 2 nanoparticles in a mixture of water (21 vol. %) and methanol (79 vol. %), and the rotation speed is kept at 100 rps during the spin-coating process.
  • the IV curve and the specular reflectance spectrum corresponding to this dye-sensitized solar cell are presented in FIG. 6 a (triangles) and 6 c , respectively.
  • FIG. 6 c is also plotted the absorption spectrum of the ruthenium based dye (black solid line, in arbitrary units).

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Cited By (25)

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US20120048337A1 (en) * 2009-04-30 2012-03-01 Atsushi Fukui Porous electrode, dye-sensitized solar cell, and dye-sensitized solar cell module
US20120211077A1 (en) * 2011-02-22 2012-08-23 Byong-Cheol Shin Dye-sensitized solar cell
WO2012125841A1 (en) * 2011-03-17 2012-09-20 Steven Colby Reflection solar
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