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Increasing the Efficiency of Organic Dye‐Sensitized Solar Cells over 10.3% Using Locally Ordered Inverse Opal Nanostructures in the Photoelectrode
Author(s) -
Xu Lin,
Aumaitre Cyril,
Kervella Yann,
Lapertot Gérard,
RodríguezSeco Cristina,
Palomares Emilio,
Demadrille Renaud,
Reiss Peter
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
advanced functional materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.069
H-Index - 322
eISSN - 1616-3028
pISSN - 1616-301X
DOI - 10.1002/adfm.201706291
Subject(s) - dye sensitized solar cell , materials science , mesoporous material , photocurrent , chemical engineering , nanostructure , calcination , electrolyte , substrate (aquarium) , nanotechnology , electrode , optoelectronics , chemistry , catalysis , organic chemistry , engineering , oceanography , geology
3D inverse opal (3D‐IO) oxides are very appealing nanostructures to be integrated into the photoelectrodes of dye‐sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Due to their periodic interconnected pore network with a high pore volume fraction, they facilitate electrolyte infiltration and enhance light scattering. Nonetheless, preparing 3D‐IO structures directly on nonflat DSSC electrodes is challenging. Herein, 3D‐IO TiO 2 structures are prepared by templating with self‐assembled polymethyl methacrylate spheres on glass substrates, impregnation with a mixed TiO 2 :SiO 2 precursor and calcination. The specific surface increases from 20.9 to 30.7 m 2 g −1 after SiO 2 removal via etching, which leads to the formation of mesopores. The obtained nanostructures are scraped from the substrate, processed as a paste, and deposited on photoelectrodes containing a mesoporous TiO 2 layer. This procedure maintains locally the 3D‐IO order. When sensitized with the novel benzothiadiazole dye YKP‐88, DSSCs containing the modified photoelectrodes exhibit an efficiency of 10.35% versus 9.26% for the same devices with conventional photoelectrodes. Similarly, using the ruthenium dye N719 as sensitizer an efficiency increase from 5.31% to 6.23% is obtained. These improvements originate mainly from an increase in the photocurrent density, which is attributed to an enhanced dye loading obtained with the mesoporous 3D‐IO structures due to SiO 2 removal.