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Method to Protect Charge Recombination in the Back-Contact Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell

Beomjin Yoo, Kang-Jin Kim, Doh-Kwon Lee, Kyungkon Kim, Min Jae Ko, Yong Hyun Kim, Won Mok Kim, and Nam-Gyu Park

Open Access Open Access

Abstract

We prepared a back-contact dye-sensitized solar cell and investigated effect of the sputter deposited thin TiO2 film on the back-contact ITO electrode on photovoltaic property. The nanocrystalline TiO2 layer with thickness of about 11 μm formed on a plain glass substrate in the back-contact structure showed higher optical transmittance than that formed on an ITO-coated glass substrate, which led to an improved photocurrent density by about 6.3%. However, photovoltage was found to decrease from 817 mV to 773 mV. The photovoltage recovered after deposition of a 35 nm-thick thin TiO2 film on the surface of the back-contact ITO electrode. Little difference in time constant for electron transport was found for the back-contact ITO electrodes with and without the sputter deposited thin TiO2 film. Whereas, time constant for charge recombination increased after introduction of the thin TiO2 film, indicating that such a thin TiO2 film protected back electron transfer, associated with the recovery of photovoltage. As the result of the improved photocurrent density without deterioration of photovoltage, the back-contact dye-sensitized solar cell exhibited 13.6% higher efficiency than the ITO-coated glass substrate-based dye-sensitized solar cell.

©2010 Optical Society of America

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Figures (6)
Fig. 1
Fig. 1 Schematic structure of a back-contact dye-sensitized solar cell, where charge collecting ITO is placed on the the nanocrystalline TiO2 layer coated on a non-conducting plain glass substrate.

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Fig. 2
Fig. 2 Surface (a-c) and cross-sectional (d-f) scanning electron micrograph (SEM) images for the bare nc-TiO2 film; (a and d), the back-contact ITO film deposited on the nc-TiO2 film (d and e), and the TF-TiO2 film deposited on the back-contact ITO layer on the nc-TiO2 film (c and f).

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Fig. 3
Fig. 3 (a) Cross-sectional SEM image of the nc-TiO2/ITO/TF-TiO2 layer on a plain glass substrate. (b) Atomic concentration with respect to sputter time obtained by AES depth profiling of the nc-TiO2/ITO/TF-TiO2 layer. Depth profiling rate was 20 nm/min.

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Fig. 4
Fig. 4 Photocurrent-voltage and dark current-voltage curves for the conventional ITO-coated-glass-based DSSC and the back-contact DSSCs with and without a TF-TiO2 film. ITO deposition on a glass substrate was performed at the same condition as the back contact ITO deposition.

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Fig. 5
Fig. 5 (a) Incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency (IPCE) spectra as a function of wavelength for the back-contact DSSCs with and without a TF-TiO2 film. (b) Comparison of transmittance of Vycor glasses coated with and without an ITO film. Measurement was performed in the presence of redox electrolyte.

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Fig. 6
Fig. 6 (a) Time constants for electron transport (τ c) and (b) time constants for charge recombination (τ R) as a function of light intensity, represented by photocurrent density, for the back-contact ITO charge collector with and without a TF-TiO2 film.

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Tables (1)

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Table 1 Shot-circuit photocurrent (J SC), open-circuit photovoltage (V OC), filll factor (FF) and overall conversion efficiency (η) of dye-sensitized solar cellsa with conventional structure and back-contact structure. Data were average values from 3 cells.

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