Attafi Kadhim, Nattestad Andrew, Qutaish Hamzeh, Park Min-Sik, Shrestha Lok Kumar, Ariga Katsuhiko, Dou Shi Xue, Ho Kim Jung
Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials (ISEM), Australian Institute for Innovative Materials (AIIM), University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Australia.
Department of Physics, College of Science, University of Karbala, Karbala, Iraq.
Sci Technol Adv Mater. 2021 Mar 10;22(1):100-112. doi: 10.1080/14686996.2021.1873059.
Many researchers working on the development of Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) continue to focus on the synthesis of photoanode materials with high surface area, along with high light scattering ability to enhance light harvesting efficiency (LHE). On the other hand, dye packing density, which can also affect the LHE significantly, is often overlooked. Solvothermally synthesized anatase TiO nanoparticles (SANP) were obtained by a new and simple approach using a mixed solvent, ethanol and acetic acid. SANP were applied as a photoanodes material in DSCs using a metal-free organic dye (D149) or organometallic dye (N719) dyes. The dye loading (packing density) was examined in term of the isoelectric point (IEP) and the contribution of this, in addition to light scattering effects were shown to control the devices photovoltaic efficiency of the devices; specifically when compared with ones employing commercially available TiO nanoparticles (either transparent or a bilayer structure with a transparent layer and a scattering one). SANP photoanodes sensitized with D149 dye were found to be optimised at 10 µm, yielding photovoltaic conversion efficiencies of 6.9%, superior to for transparent or transparent + scattering films from the commercial source (5.6% and 5.9%, respectively). Further to this, an efficiency of 7.7% PCE was achieved using a SANP photoanode sensitized with N719 dye, with 7.2% seen for the transparent photoanode and 7.9% with a scattering layer. The high efficiencies of devices based on of SANP photoanode are attributed to the high dye loading capability in addition to good light scattering. A further point of interest is that even with the increased reactivity of the surface towards dye adsorption, we did not observe any significant increase in recombination with the redox mediator, presumably due to this increased dye loading providing better shielding.
许多致力于染料敏化太阳能电池（DSC）开发的研究人员继续专注于合成具有高表面积的光阳极材料，以及具有高光散射能力以提高光捕获效率（LHE）。另一方面，也会显著影响光捕获效率的染料堆积密度常常被忽视。通过使用乙醇和乙酸的混合溶剂，采用一种新的简单方法溶剂热合成了锐钛矿型TiO纳米颗粒（SANP）。将SANP用作DSC中的光阳极材料，使用无金属有机染料（D149）或有机金属染料（N719）。从等电点（IEP）方面研究了染料负载量（堆积密度），结果表明，除光散射效应外，其对器件光伏效率的贡献也能控制器件的光伏效率；特别是与使用市售TiO纳米颗粒（透明或具有透明层和散射层的双层结构）的器件相比时。发现用D149染料敏化的SANP光阳极在10μm时达到最佳效果，产生6.9%的光伏转换效率，优于市售透明或透明+散射薄膜（分别为5.6%和5.9%）。除此之外，使用用N719染料敏化的SANP光阳极实现了7.7%的光电转换效率，透明光阳极的效率为7.2%，有散射层的为7.9%。基于SANP光阳极的器件的高效率归因于高染料负载能力以及良好的光散射。另一个有趣的点是，即使表面对染料吸附的反应性增加，我们也没有观察到与氧化还原介质的复合有任何显著增加，推测是由于这种增加的染料负载提供了更好的屏蔽作用。
