A Spray Method for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells
A new spray method was applied for the working electrode of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), instead of the doctor-blade method, to make the film on the working electrode uniform. The working electrode was soaked to the dye which was heated to 60°C, an
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Abstract A new spray method was applied for the working electrode of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), instead of the doctor-blade method, to make the film on the working electrode uniform. The working electrode was soaked to the dye which was heated to 60 C, and then the dye was vibrated by a resonator. This procedure was capable of making the dye be well adsorbed into the working electrode. The solar photovoltaic conversion efficiency is increased from 0.26 % for the doctor-blade method to 2.65 % for the proposed spray method. The TiO2 pastes were widely spread on the fluorinedoped tin oxide (FTO) substrate, even with a curved surface, using the spray method to achieve an efficient and simple manufacture technology of DSSCs with the advantage of low cost. Keywords Dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) • Spray method • Working electrode
1 Introduction Since 1990s, because of the advantages of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), such as inexpensive price, flexibility, and simple manufacture, more and more study for DSSCs has been increasing [1–5]. Although there is, yet, no breakthrough for the efficiency of DSSCs to surpass silicon solar cells, the much less cost of DSSCs in manufacture makes the DSSCs superior. The efficiency of DSSCs can be raised by solving the problem of electrolyte volatilization and chemical corrosion in electronic packaging. DSSCs will play an important role in solar cell area in the coming future [6–9].
Y.-L. Lai (*) • Y.-H. Huang Department of Mechatronics Engineering, National Changhua University of Education, Changhua 50007, Taiwan, R.O.C. e-mail: [email protected] J. Juang and Y.-C. Huang (eds.), Intelligent Technologies and Engineering Systems, Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering 234, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4614-6747-2_115, # Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013
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Y.-L. Lai and Y.-H. Huang
The traditional film coating methods of DSSCs include screen printing, sol–gel, magnetron sputtering, and spin coating [10–12]. In addition to the traditional methods, a new spray method for the DSSC has been developed in this study. The spray method proposed is simple and convenient without the use of complex instruments. It also saves a lot of time and equipment costs and achieves a good efficiency. In this work, the baking varnish spray gun collocated with gas air compressor was utilized for the spraying of films on the fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) substrates. The DSSCs with good characteristics were successfully manufactured.
2 Experimental 2.1
Structure
The structure of the DSSC contains a working electrode, an electrolyte, and a counter electrode, as shown in Fig. 1. The dye sensitizer was added in the working electrode of the DSSC to enhance the absorption of the visible light. The DSSC is able to transfer the solar energy to the electric energy. The characteristics of the DSSC can be improved by ameliorating the process of the working electrode.
2.2
Materials
The FTO glass plates were used for the substrates of the working electrode and the counter electrode. T
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