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Effect of Nanochannels Prepared By Nano Polystyrene Beads in Photoelectrode on Photo Conversion Efficiency of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Wednesday, 3 October 2018
Universal Ballroom (Expo Center)
S. A. Song (Korea Institute of Industrial Technology), K. Kim (Korea Institiute of Indusrial Technology), and S. N. Lim (Korea Institute of Industrial Technology)
In dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) system, the real contact area between the dye and the electrolyte is very important because of fast readiness for separating electrons and holes by the light energy being original form of dye by redox reaction between dye and electrolyte. In order to enhance the photo-electric conversion efficiency in dye sensitive solar cells (DSSCs), the photoelectrode with nano-channels was prepared. The photoelectrode with nano-channel is able to enlarge active area for charge transfer among TiO2/dye/electrolyte. For preparing nano-channels in the photoelectrode, the polystyrene (PS) beads prepared by solution polymerization were added when preparing TiO2 pastes for photo-electrode film. Added nano PS beads in photoelectrode were decomposed and formed the nano-channels when heat-treating at 500 oC for sintering between TiO2 particles. The cell efficiencies of cells without and with nano-channels by PS beads (10%) are 5.19 and 7.47%, respectively. The cell photovoltaic performance is dramatically improved because of effective delivery of electron and hole to electrodes at the enlarged boundaries among dye/TiO2/electrolyte due to the increase of the impregnation amount of dye and electrolyte via the nano-channels formed by the decomposition of nano PS beads.