Highly Efficiency p-Type Dye Sensitized Solar Cells Based on Polygonal Star-morphology Cu2O Material of Photocathodes

Cuprous oxide(Cu2O), as an important p-type semiconductor, has been widely investigated due to its high electron transmission and facile preparation. However, the electrode made of only Cu2O has been rarely investigated. In order to demonstrate the possibility that material Cu2O can be applied to the electrode of p-type dye sensitized solar cells(DSSCs), the photo-electrodes made of prepared Cu2O powder and commercial Cu2O particles have been fabricated. The results show that the electrode based on as-prepared Cu2O(Cu2O-2) powder exhibits higher performance than that based on commercial Cu2O(Cu2O-1) particle. The device based on Cu2O-2 electrode reaches into an open-circuit voltage of 0.71 V, a short-circuit current density of 1.3 mA/cm(2), a fill factor(FF) of 46%, and a conversion efficiency of 0.42% measured under AM 1.5G(100 mW/cm(2)) illumination. The enhancement performance of Cu2O-2 is attributed to the high dye adsorption of Cu2O-2 compared with that of Cu2O-1. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest conversion efficiency value reported for solar cells based on Cu2O-DSSC. This work provides that Cu2O is also a candidate for constructing the electrode of p-type dye sensitized solar cells.