NEW DYE ADSORPTION METHOD FOR DYE-SENSITIZED SOLAR CELL UTILIZING ELECTROSTATIC INKJET

The Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell (DSC) has been attracting the attention of many researchers due to its good characteristics such as low cost, flexibility, and colorful panel. Normally DSC is produced by dipping a titaniacoated FTO electrode in the dye solution for over three hours to adsorb dye onto the titania layer of the DSC. We have been investigating fundamental characteristics of the electrostatic inkjet. Ejected droplets are charged because of high voltage application. Since the dye adsorption process depends on charge, charged dye gives a preferable effect to the adsorption process to shorten the adsorption time. In this study, an experimental set-up of an electrostatic inkjet was constructed to print dye on a titania-coated FTO electrode. We have investigated the fundamental characteristics of the dye-printed DSC by changing the printing time. As a result, the printing time was drastically reduced from several hours to about 14 or 15 minutes, and the efficiency proved to be about 5%, which is a comparable value to that made by ordinary production methods.