Top-illuminated dye-sensitized solar cells with a room-temperature-processed ZnO photoanode on metal substrates and a Pt-coated Ga-doped ZnO counter electrode

Date
2011-01-11
Advisor
Instructor
Source Title
Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics
Print ISSN
0022-3727
Electronic ISSN
Publisher
IOP Publishing
Volume
44
Issue
4
Pages
1 - 9
Language
English
Type
Article
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Abstract

We report on top-illuminated, fluorine tin oxide/indium tin oxide-free (FTO/ITO-free), dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) using room-temperature- processed ZnO layers on metal substrates as the working electrodes and Pt-coated Ga-doped ZnO layers (GZO) as the counter electrodes. These top-illuminated DSCs with GZO render comparable efficiency to those employing commercial FTO counter electrodes. Despite a lower current density, the top-illuminated DSCs result in a higher fill factor than conventional DSCs due to a low ohmic loss at the electrode/semiconductor interface. The effect of metal substrate on the performance of the resulting top-illuminated DSCs is also studied by employing various metals with different work functions. Ti is shown to be a suitable metal to be used as the working electrode in the top-illuminated device architecture owing to its low ohmic loss at the electrode/semiconductor interface, minimum catalytic activity on redox reactions and high resistance to corrosion by liquid electrolytes.

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Other identifiers
Book Title
Keywords
Catalytic activity, Counter electrodes, Device architectures, Dye-sensitized solar cell, Fill factor, Ga-doped ZnO, High resistance, Liquid electrolytes, Metal substrate
Citation
Published Version (Please cite this version)