1. Increasing the Efficiency of Organic Dye‐Sensitized Solar Cells over 10.3% Using Locally Ordered Inverse Opal Nanostructures in the Photoelectrode.
- Author
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Xu, Lin, Aumaitre, Cyril, Kervella, Yann, Lapertot, Gérard, Rodríguez‐seco, Cristina, Palomares, Emilio, Demadrille, Renaud, and Reiss, Peter
- Subjects
DYE-sensitized solar cells ,SOLAR cell efficiency ,OPAL glass ,TITANIUM oxides ,MESOPOROUS materials ,ETCHING - Abstract
Abstract: 3D inverse opal (3D‐IO) oxides are very appealing nanostructures to be integrated into the photoelectrodes of dye‐sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Due to their periodic interconnected pore network with a high pore volume fraction, they facilitate electrolyte infiltration and enhance light scattering. Nonetheless, preparing 3D‐IO structures directly on nonflat DSSC electrodes is challenging. Herein, 3D‐IO TiO
2 structures are prepared by templating with self‐assembled polymethyl methacrylate spheres on glass substrates, impregnation with a mixed TiO2 :SiO2 precursor and calcination. The specific surface increases from 20.9 to 30.7 m2 g−1 after SiO2 removal via etching, which leads to the formation of mesopores. The obtained nanostructures are scraped from the substrate, processed as a paste, and deposited on photoelectrodes containing a mesoporous TiO2 layer. This procedure maintains locally the 3D‐IO order. When sensitized with the novel benzothiadiazole dye YKP‐88, DSSCs containing the modified photoelectrodes exhibit an efficiency of 10.35% versus 9.26% for the same devices with conventional photoelectrodes. Similarly, using the ruthenium dye N719 as sensitizer an efficiency increase from 5.31% to 6.23% is obtained. These improvements originate mainly from an increase in the photocurrent density, which is attributed to an enhanced dye loading obtained with the mesoporous 3D‐IO structures due to SiO2 removal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]- Published
- 2018
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