Improved Performance of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells with TiO<sub>2</sub> Nanoparticles/Zn-Doped TiO<sub>2</sub> Hollow Fiber Photoanodes

In this study, dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) were fabricated using double-layer photoanodes consisting of TiO<sub>2</sub> nanoparticles (NPs) and Zn-doped TiO<sub>2</sub> hollow fibers (HFs). The TiO<sub>2</sub> HFs were prepared by co-axial electrospinning a...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Zainal Arifin, Suyitno Suyitno, Syamsul Hadi, Bayu Sutanto
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2018-10-01
Series:Energies
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/11/11/2922
Description
Summary:In this study, dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) were fabricated using double-layer photoanodes consisting of TiO<sub>2</sub> nanoparticles (NPs) and Zn-doped TiO<sub>2</sub> hollow fibers (HFs). The TiO<sub>2</sub> HFs were prepared by co-axial electrospinning and used as the light-scattering layer in the DSSC. The thickness variations of the TiO<sub>2</sub> NP and Zn-doped TiO<sub>2</sub> HF photoanode layers affect the performance of the DSSC, especially the short-circuit photocurrent density. The thickness of the TiO<sub>2</sub> NP layer significantly affected the absorbance of photons and N719 dye molecules in the double-layer photoanode, while that of the Zn-doped TiO<sub>2</sub> HF layer affected the scattering of light, as indicated by the low light transmittance in the photoanode. Conventional DSSCs consist of single-layer photoanodes, and exhibit relatively low efficiency, i.e., 1.293% and 0.89% for TiO<sub>2</sub> NP and Zn-doped TiO<sub>2</sub> HF, respectively. However, herein, the highest efficiency of the DSSC (3.122%) was achieved with a 15 &#956;m NP-5 &#956;m HF photoanode, for which the short-circuit photocurrent density, open-circuit photovoltage, and fill factor were 15.81 mA/cm<sup>2</sup>, 0.566 V, and 34.91%, respectively.
ISSN:1996-1073