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Improved Efficiency of Betanin-Sensitized Solar Cells Prepared with Electrophoretically-Deposited Nanoparticulate TiO2 Photoanodes and Reflective Pt Cathodes

Tuesday, 31 May 2016: 08:20
Sapphire Ballroom I (Hilton San Diego Bayfront)
J. I. Valdez-Nava, D. Ortega-Díaz, I. V. Feria-Socarras, L. A. Godínez Mora-Tovar (CIDETEQ), R. Fuentes (Universidad de Guanajuato), P. F. Méndez (Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa), and J. Manríquez (CIDETEQ)
In this investigation we prepared betanin-sensitized solar cells by means of electrophoretically-deposited nanoparticulate TiO2 photoanodes and reflective Pt cathodes. This strategy allowed constructing improved betanin-based dye-sensitized solar cells having efficiencies of 8.8% (Eoc=0.607V, ff=0.47). Our results indicated that, despite the surface coverages of betanins on the TiO2 films are typically low; the incident photon-to-current efficiencies which were obtained for the betanin-sensitized TiO2 photoanodes were significantly increased. This phenomenon was promoted due the photons of light were highly diffused when they passed through the electrophoretic-deposited TiO2 films, while a significant quantity of non-harvested photons on the dyed-TiO2 were forced to come back to these electrodes by optical reflection that took place on the Pt cathodes.