Fabrication of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell (DSSC) Using Different Particle Sizes of TiO2 Deposited via Nano-Particle Deposition System (NPDS)

Abstract

TiO2 layers were fabricated using a nano-particle deposition system (NPDS) on transparent conductive oxide (TCO) glass for dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Conventionally, TiO2 paste for working electrodes has been fabricated using paste type methods. The fabricated paste composed of a mixture of nano-sized TiO2 powders, binders and solutions is then painted on TCO glass. After drying, the TiO2 layer on TCO glass is sintered to make a path for electron transfer. TiO2 layers formed by this paste type method require numerous steps, which can be time consuming. In this study, TiO2 powders were sprayed directly on TCO glass using NPDS in order to simplify the fabrication steps. To improve porosity and produce scattering layers, commercial nanocrystalline TiO2 powders with different sizes were alternately deposited. Moreover, powders with different sizes were mixed and deposited on the TCO glass. The results indicate that the DSSCs with a TiO2 layer composed of different particle sizes had better cell performance than the cells assembled with single-sized TiO2 particles. Therefore, this study shows that a dry TiO2 coating process is possible for DSSC fabrication to improve its cell efficiencies, and this method can easily be applied on flexible substrates since NPDS is a room-temperature deposition process.