Performance evaluation of titanium oxide deposited by electrophoresis in photoelectrodes of dye-sensitized solar cells

• Main Author: Souza,Antonio Paulo Santos
• Publication Date: 2021
• Other Authors: Cavalcante,Natália Macêdo, Freire,Francisco Nivaldo Aguiar, Almeida,Ana Fabíola Leite
• Format: Article
• Language: eng
• Source: Matéria (Rio de Janeiro. Online)
• Download full: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1517-70762021000100338
• topic: Dye-sensitized solar cells; Electrophoresis; Titanium dioxide; Film; Mesoporous. Photoanode

ABSTRACT Nanoparticles of TiO2 have been the main semiconductor applied in Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). In this work, solar cells were developed from the electrophoretic deposition of anatase titanium dioxide (TiO2) films on conductive glasses. The electrophoretic deposition was perfomed with a constant voltage of 80V for 2 minutes and, after drying, the films were sintered at three different temperatures: 450 °C, 550 °C and 600 °C. In the assembly of the cells, the titanium dioxide films were sensitized by Ruthenizer 535-bisTBA dye (N719) and an electrolyte containing the iodide / tri-iodide redox pair and a commercial transparent platinum counter electrode were used. TiO2 films were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, dispersive energy spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction and photo-electrochemical techniques. The energy conversion rates were 0.2646% for the sintered film at 450 °C, 0.1209% for the sintered film at 550 °C and 0.1137% for the film sintered at 600 °C.