Silver Conducting Lines of Dye-sensitized Solar Cells Printed onto Commercial Building Tiles

We report a novel design and experimental results of dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) modules using commercial building tiles as one bottom substrate. In the study, the low-cost tiles as being one common part of the present buildings were employed for solar energy conversion unit here. Silver conducting lines consisting of nano-size particles were directly inkjet-printed onto their non-uniform surfaces of the tiles, thereby forming a grid-type pattern of counter electrodes. After sintering at elevated temperatures, the silver-printed tile was bonded together with a TiO2-coated ITO (indium tin oxide) glass substrate immersed in N719 dye solution. The bonded substrates were injected with electrolyte and sealed by thin Polydimethysiloxane (PDMS) film to generate a DSSC device. This DSSC built on the tile basis showed an electric voltage of 0.51V in the experiment. It is expected to be further developed for the building application for solar energy in the future