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

摘要

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 degrees C, 550 degrees C and 600 degrees 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 degrees C, 0.1209 for the sintered film at 550 degrees C and 0.1137 for the film sintered at 600 degrees C.