Low temperature processing solid-state dye sensitized solar cells

A study on low temperature processed solid state dye sensitized solar cell (LT-SDSC) is reported. The LT-SDSC uses a photoelectrode with a mesoporous TiO2 (mp-TiO2) film fabricated from a binder-free nanoparticle-TiO2 paste at room temperature, and a blocking layer of an amorphous TiO2 thin film deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD) at 150 degrees C. A power conversion efficiency of 1.30% is obtained from the LT-SDSC with 0.9 mu m mp-TiO2 layer and 20 nm ALD-TiO2 blocking layer, in cooperating with organic indoline dyes and a hole conductor, 2,2',7,7'-Tetrakis-(N,N-di-4-methoxyphenylamino)-9,9'-spirobifluorene (Spiro-OMeTAD). The lower electron conductivity of the low-temperature-processed mp-TiO2 film and the amorphous blocking layer is equilibrated by using smaller thicknesses of the films. Ways to further boost the LT-SDSC performance are proposed. These LT-SDSC are potentially compatible with low cost plastic substrates and show promising manufacturing potential for low cost flexible SDSCs. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3693399]