Investigation of the stability of solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells

The stability of the TiO2/ruthenium dye/CuI solid-state solar cell was investigated under continuous simulated sunlight illumination. The cells showed fast degradation under full-spectrum sunlight illumination, but showed rather good stability when the ultraviolet part of the illumination was removed. XPS measurements showed evidence that TiO2 could oxidize CuI in the presence of UV light. The photo-degradation mechanism of the cells is thus discussed on the basis of the photo-oxidative function of TiO2. The long-term stability of the solid-state dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) was found to be improved under simulated sunlight by coating the TiO2 porous electrode with an ultra-thin MgO layer, which was able to block the photo-oxidative activity of the TiO2.