Surface modification of fluorine-doped tin oxide films using electrochemical etching for dye-sensitized solar cells

摘要

We modified the surface of fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) films using electrochemical etching in order to improve the photovoltiac performance of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). For the electrochemical etching, a mixture of HCl and zinc precursor was used as the electrolyte, which generated the H+ needed for activating the SnO2 etching reaction. This led to the formation of surface-modified FTO films that resulted in an increase in surface roughness and a high level of haze without changing the sheet resistance and optical transmittance of the FTO films. The open circuit voltage, fill factor, and short-circuit current density of the DSSCs assembled using the surface-modified FTO films were 0.73 V, 60.53%, and 15.67 mA/cm(2), respectively. The surface-modified FTO films created using electrochemical etching showed an improved photoconversion efficiency (similar to 6.95%) when compared to bare FTO films (similar to 6.33%). This improvement in performance was caused by an improved ability to trap light by increasing haze, which resulted in an enhancement in the surface roughness of the FTO films. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l. All rights reserved.