Soo-Jin Moon
Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) are considered as an emerging technology in order to replace conventional silicon solar cells or thin film solar cells such as amorphous silicon, CIGS, and CdTe. Liquid electrolytes containing iodide/triiodide redox couple have a durability problem due to the corrosion of metal contacts. In order to improve the long-term stability of DSC device it is important to find an alternate efficient redox couple. In search of this we are using 2,2',7,7'-tetrakis-(N,N-di-methoxyphenylamine)- 9,9'-spirobifluorene (spiro-OMeTAD) as a hole transport material for solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells (SSDSCs). In comparison to the liquid electrolytes the efficiencies of SSDSCs are inferior, they are around only 30% of the efficiencies obtained with the liquid electrolytes. In optimizing the device performance and stability of SSDSCs, various light harvesting systems are employed to enhance a photovoltaic performance and investigated their properties in SSDSCs. In SSDSCs we use thin TiO2 films to avoid the pore-filling problem of HTM. Hence it is critical to use high molar extinction coefficient dyes with an efficient light harvesting capability for SSDSCs. Representative ruthenium sensitizers such as N719 or Z907 have shown good and stable performances in liquid electrolyte-based DSCs. However, their performances are low in SSDSCs due to insufficient light harvesting in thin mesoporous TiO2 films. A new family of heteroleptic polypyridyl ruthenium sensitizers having thiophene units was employed to increase the light harvesting capabilities and their applicability in SSDSCs. These new dyes could improve the absorbed photon-to-current conversion efficiencies as well as power conversion efficiencies due to their high molar extinction coefficients. The thiophene units of the ancillary ligands not only enhanced molar extinction coefficients but also augmented electron lifetime in the devices. In general, ruthenium sensitizers possess lower molar extinction coefficients compared to organic dyes. In order to increase the molar extinction coefficients and bathochromic shift in the absorption spectra of organic dyes, we applied donor-acceptor concept in organic dyes with different π-conjugation bridges. Consequently, we achieved 6 % power conversion efficiency at AM 1.5G solar irradiation (100 mW/cm2) in a solid-state dye-sensitized solar cell. Transient photovoltage and photocurrent decay measurements showed that the enhanced performance of this device was ascribe to higher charge collection efficiency over a wider potential range. We also examined near infrared absorbing dyes and they could be employed to different device architectures such as tandem cells, Förster Resonance Energy Transfer, or co-sensitization to substantiate panchromatic response. Another interesting type of sensitizers is semiconductor or quantum dots due to their unique properties. However, the efficiency of the semiconductor-sensitized solar cells was only 1-2 % range. Recently, much improved efficiencies were reported with Sb2S3-sensitized cells using different hole conductors. The Sb2S3-sensitized cells with spiro-OMeTAD demonstrated a very high incident photon-to-conversion efficiency (IPCE) of 90 %. This excellent result shows that the semiconductor sensitizers are promising candidate as light absorbers for SSDSCs. Most of the standard ruthenium and organic dyes have the limited absorption in near infrared region of the solar spectrum. Porphyrin sensitizers possess strong absorptions in the visible and near infrared region and they have good chemical, photochemical and thermal stability. However, the power conversion efficiency of SSDSCs devices using a novel D-π-A porphyrin we reached only 1.6 %. In order to improve a cell performance, porphyrin was co-sensitized with an organic dye to increase light harvesting capability in the green wavelength region as well as to reduce the dye aggregation. Instead of spiro-OMeTAD a polymer hole conductor was applied, which had intense spectral response in the visible region. Interestingly, in this system the polymer hole conductor showed dual functions, as a light absorber and a hole transporter. This hybrid solar cell exhibited a clear panchromatic response and improved the power conversion efficiency of device compared to the cell with spiro-OMeTAD.
EPFL2011
