A Study on the Efficiency Improvement of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell (DSSC) by Repeated Dye Coating

Abstract

Dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) is being extensively investigated as the next generation energy source. Despite of the attractive features like simple fabrication process and its economic efficiency, there are some problems such as low efficiency, long fabrication time and low long-term stability. Conventionally, the dye adsorption on TiO2 photo-electrode film needs long time in the solvent with low concentration of dye to get the high efficiency. In this work, the dye coating process was considerably shortened, albeit plenty of dye was used comparing with the conventional way. Our needs were met for the best result in our working environment and the relevant conditions to our work were obtained, which were the coating temperature of 70 °C, the dye concentration of 10 mM and the coating time of 3 min. And this coating process was successively repeated several times to maximize the dye adsorption and to improve the cell efficiency. Therefore, the efficiency increased by 13% in the proper condition.