A simple method to prepare uniform-size nanoparticle TiO2 electrodes for dye-sensitized solar cells

作者：Zhang Yongzhe; Wu Lihui; Xie Erqing^*; Duan Huigao; Han Weihua; Zhao Jianguo

来源：Journal of Power Sources, 2009, 189(2): 1256-1263.

DOI：10.1016/j.jpowsour.2009.01.023

• Electrostatic spray coating
• Monoethanolamine
• TiO2 nanoparticles
• Dye-sensitized solar cells
• Recombination
• Surface states

Nanoparticle TiO2 electrodes are fabricated using an improved electrostatic spray coating (ESC) method which is more simple, low cost and well reproducible comparing with the conventional method of preparing electrode for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) by introducing monoethanolamine (MEA) into precursor solution. It is surprised to find that high transparency of films and good adhesion between film and substrate achieve and that particles size can be easily controlled by adjusting the proportion of MEA. The relationship between particles size and proportion of MEA added is presented in our work. After samples with various particle sizes are applied in DSSC, an increase of open-circuit voltage (V-oc) from 620 mV to 765 mV is observed with the increase of particle size from 8 nm to 48 nm. Associated with photoluminescence results, we ascribe the change of V-oc to the different dominative states of films: surface defects and oxygen vacancies in 8 nm films, oxygen vacancy defects in 25 nm films and higher crystal quality with little of both defects in 48 nm films. In addition, different thickness films with optimized proportion of MEA is applied in DSSC, an overall light to electricity conversion efficiency (eta) of 2.91% is obtained with a thickness of 2.0 mu m.

• 出版日期2009-4-15
• 单位兰州大学