Can the incident photo-to-electron conversion efficiency be used to calculate short-circuit current density of dye-sensitized solar cells

The relationship between the integration of the incident photo-to-electron conversion efficiency (IPCE) and the measured short-circuit current density (J(SC)) of dye-sensitized solar cell (DSC) has been analyzed. The J(SC) of DSC under full sun is usually considered to be determined by the overlap between its spectral IPCE and the spectral photon flux incident on the cell. However, the IPCE spectrum has been found to be influenced by the bias light intensity in many practical cases. Through theoretical deduction, we have proved that J(SC) calculated from IPCE spectrum is related to the slope at corresponding incident light intensity on the short-circuit photocurrent densityeincident light intensity (J(SC)-E-light) curve. The equal relation between J(SC) calculated from IPCE and J(SC) practically measured can only be obtained when the J(SC)-E-light curve is a straight line through the origin of the coordinates. The measured results of four DSC samples with different working condition show a good agreement with the theory. In addition, a simple method to validate the accuracy of IPCE measurement is also demonstrated. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.