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Collector‐Shell Mesoporous Electrodes for Dye Sensitized Solar Cells
Author(s) -
Grinis Larissa,
Ofir Ashi,
Dor Snir,
Yahav Shay,
Zaban Arie
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
israel journal of chemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.908
H-Index - 54
eISSN - 1869-5868
pISSN - 0021-2148
DOI - 10.1560/ijc.48.3-4.269
Subject(s) - electrode , dye sensitized solar cell , electrolyte , mesoporous material , optoelectronics , chemistry , layer (electronics) , solar cell , indium tin oxide , electrical conductor , nanotechnology , indium , coating , current collector , chemical engineering , materials science , composite material , biochemistry , engineering , catalysis
We present results for dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) electrodes based on high surface area indium tin oxide (ITO) coated with an active TiO 2 layer. This design, denoted as a “collector‐shell electrode”, ensures a distance of several nanometers between the TiO 2 ‐electrolyte interface and the current collector throughout the porous electrode, in contrast to several micrometers associated with the standard electrode. The new design also enables an inherent screening capability due to the high doping level of the conductive core matrix. Therefore, the importance of this electrode configuration is its ability to overcome the collection and image field problems in DSSCs, especially for solid‐state hole–conductor‐based devices. Efficiencies of 1.37% for cells containing ITO‐TiO 2 collector‐shell electrodes and 1.63% for similar electrodes that received an additional coating of a thin MgO layer were achieved. We expect greater cell performance improvement after optimization of the nature and the size of conductive material particles, the TiO 2 shell thickness and uniformity, and the barrier layer(s) properties.