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Atomic Layer Deposition of Highly Transparent Platinum Counter Electrodes for Metal/Polymer Flexible Dye‐Sensitized Solar Cells
Author(s) -
GarciaAlonso Diana,
Zardetto Valerio,
Mackus Adriaan J. M.,
De Rossi Francesca,
Verheijen Marcel A.,
Brown Thomas M.,
Kessels Wilhelmus M. M.,
Creatore Mariadriana
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
advanced energy materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 10.08
H-Index - 220
eISSN - 1614-6840
pISSN - 1614-6832
DOI - 10.1002/aenm.201300831
Subject(s) - polyethylene naphthalate , materials science , atomic layer deposition , auxiliary electrode , dye sensitized solar cell , indium tin oxide , platinum , electrode , solar cell , nanotechnology , platinum nanoparticles , chemical engineering , layer (electronics) , optoelectronics , catalysis , biochemistry , chemistry , engineering , electrolyte
Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is used to deposit Pt nanoparticles at low temperature (25–150 °C) to fabricate highly transparent counter electrodes (CEs) for flexible dye‐sensitized solar cells (DSCs). The Pt nanoparticles (NPs) are deposited for different number of ALD cycles on indium tin oxide (ITO)/polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) substrates. Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy (RBS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) are used to assess the Pt NP loading, density, and size. There is a trade‐off between transparency and catalytic activity of the CE, and the best cell performances of back‐side‐illuminated DSCs (≈3.7% efficiency) are achieved for Pt ALD at temperatures in the range of 100–150 °C, even though deposition at 25 °C is also viable. The best cell produced with ALD platinized CE (100 cycles at 100 °C) outperforms the reference cells fabricated with electrodeposited and sputtered Pt CEs, with relative improvements in efficiency of 19% and 29%, respectively. In addition, these parameters are used to fabricate a large area CE for a sub‐module (active area of 17.6 cm 2 ), resulting in an efficiency of 3.1%, which demonstrates the scalability of the process.