Acta Chimica Slovaca (ACS) publishes papers on fundamental and applied aspects of chemistry, biochemistry, chemical technology, chemical engineering and process control, biotechnology and food technology. Welcome are also topics which include chemical aspects of materials, physical chemistry and chemical physics, analytical chemistry, macromolecular chemistry and biomedical engineering.

Efficiency of dye sensitized solar cells with various compositions of TiO2 based screen printed photoactive electrodes

Pavol Gemeiner *, Milan Mikula

Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, Faculty of Chemical and Food Technology, Department of Graphic Art Technology and Applied Photochemistry, Radlinského 9, 821 37, Bratislava, Slovakia

E-mail: * pavol.gemeiner@stuba.sk

Abstract: The TiO2 electrode has a key role in dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) technology in the charge generation and charge transportation. The properties of TiO2 layer affect resulting efficiency of DSSC and can be controlled by printing process and chemical composition of printing paste. TiO2 pastes with different compositions of TiO2 nanoparticles, ethanol, ethyl cellulose, water, acetic acid, a-terpineol were prepared and screen printed onto the glass substrate with fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO). The TiO2 pastes for screen printing were characterized by rheological measurements and screen printed TiO2 electrodes by atomic force microscopy and UV-Vis spectroscopy. The photocurrent – voltage characteristics and efficiencies of DSSC were evaluated and compared. All prepared TiO2 pastes were suitable for screen printing with ideal rheological characteristics. The highest efficiency 0.68 % and current density ISC = 1.21 mA/cm2 reached by the DSSC based on TiO2 electrode with thickness 1.5 mm, with amount of absorbed dye 1.1 × 10–8 mol/cm2 and without visible cracks and particles aggregation. This TiO2 electrode was prepared from the paste containing 5.4 wt. % of TiO2, 65.3 wt. % of ethanol, 1.8 wt. % of ethyl cellulose, 23 wt. % of H2O and 4.5 wt. % of CH3COOH.

Keywords: TiO2 nanoporous electrode, dye sensitized solar cell, screen printing

Full paper in Portable Document Format: acs_0141.pdf

Acta Chimica Slovaca, Vol. 6, No. 1, 2013, pp. 29—34, DOI: 10.2478/acs-2013-0006