Effects of Activated Carbon Counter Electrode on Bifacial Dye Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSCs)

Abstract

The losses of solar cells are consisted of electrical losses and optical losses. Optical losses chiefly reduce the short-circuit current. Here we apply bifacial cell approach to increase light absorption and the short-circuit current of dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). We have employed activated carbon (AC) as a very low cost counter electrode, an alternative to Pt counter electrode. Addition of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and titanium carbonitride (TiCN) to AC increase the efficiency of bifacial DSSC at a mirror angle of from 5.10% to and , respectively. These results indicate that AC has the potential to replace Pt as a very low cost counter electrode of bifacial DSSCs. The bifacial DSSC system using double plane mirrors improve PCE to for Pt counter electrode at a mirror angle of , and for AC counter electrode at a mirror angle of , respectively.