Content variation of particle size in TiO2 paste as medium for electron transportation in dye sensitized solar cell

Abstract

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) belong to the third-generation solar cells and have been actively investigated due to their low cost and ease of fabrication. Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) based on titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles in mesoporous oxide have been intensively investigated since the first high efficiency cell was reported by O'Regan and Grätzel in 1991. In this paper, the effect of composition of micro/nano powder size TiO2 nanostructured in the mesoporous oxide layer was studied. The micro/nano powder, titanium dioxide have been successfully deposited on the transparent conductive oxide substrate using the screen printing technique. The effect of composition of (100% nanopowder), (75% nanopowder/25% micropowder), (50% nanopowder/50% micropowder), (25% nanopowder/75 micropowder and 100% micropowder) size of TiO2 nanostructured being studied. The deposited Titanium Dioxide films were characterized by field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) and Solar Simulator. The best efficiency of 3.46% under AM 1.5 was attained with a composition of (50% nanopowder/50% micropowder). The properties of TiO2 in term of thickness and total of adsorbed dye are not the only factors which have an influence on the overall conversion efficiency of dye sensitized solar cell. The combination of high light scattering and moderate surface area able to improve the performance of the dye sensitized solar cell.