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Uniaxial Freezing, Freeze‐Drying, and Anodization for Aligned Pore Structure in Dye‐Sensitized Solar Cells
Author(s) -
Khaleghi Evan,
Olevsky Eugene,
Meyers Marc
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of the american ceramic society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.9
H-Index - 196
eISSN - 1551-2916
pISSN - 0002-7820
DOI - 10.1111/j.1551-2916.2009.03038.x
Subject(s) - dye sensitized solar cell , materials science , anodizing , semiconductor , titanium dioxide , layer (electronics) , nanotechnology , etching (microfabrication) , thin film , nanostructure , electrophoretic deposition , optoelectronics , composite material , coating , electrode , chemistry , aluminium , electrolyte
A variety of methods are available for creating the titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) semiconductor surface layer of dye‐sensitized solar cells (DSSCs); however, many of them are used independently to create surface morphologies that are influenced by only one process. A series of experimental techniques are utilized, some not originally used for thin film preparation, to create a semiconductor surface that exhibits variations in morphology on the macro‐, micro‐, and nanoscales. The techniques used to create the micro‐ and nanostructures are uniaxial freezing, freeze‐drying, and anodization or etching, combined with the macrostructural techniques of the doctor blade method, screen printing, and/or electrophoretic deposition. When several of these techniques are used together to create, and modify, a thin film for DSSC, these techniques can produce a TiO 2 semiconductor layer for DSSC that has very high current and voltage characteristics, and a surface morphology more complex than can be created by using any one of the techniques alone.