| AVS 55th International Symposium & Exhibition | |
| Energy Science and Technology Focus Topic | Wednesday Sessions |
| Session EN+AS+TF+VT+NC-WeA |
| Session: | Energy: Tools and Approaches |
| Presenter: | T. Takahashi, University of Toyama, Japan |
| Authors: | M.F. Hossain, University of Toyama, Japan S. Biswas, University of Toyama, Japan M. Shahjahan, University of Toyama, Japan A. Majumder, University of Toyama, Japan T. Takahashi, University of Toyama, Japan |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Dye sensitized solar cells (DSCs) are considered as a low cost alternative to conventional p-n junction solar cell devices. The high light-to-energy conversion efficiencies achieved with dye sensitized solar cells (DSCs) may be attributed to the nanoporous TiO2 electrode. Among the various techniques for the preparation of TiO2 photo-electrode, the relatively simple sol gel method is the most widely used because of its ability to obtain films with tailored properties on large, curved substrates, and also it is a low temperature process. Crystallinity is one of the key factors behind the photovoltaic performances of TiO2; therefore achievement of better crystallinity at relatively low temperature is an important issue. In our present study, the titanium dioxide porous films were deposited on SnO2:F coated glass by sol–gel technique; where, an alcoholic solution of tetra-buthylorthotitane was hydrolysed in a water/alcohol/acetic acid mixture. These films were transparent and crack free. For this investigation; annealing temperature and number of coating layers were varied. All the films were annealed at different annealing temperatures, ranging from 350 to 500°C. Sufficiently good crystalline samples were obtained by annealing at 350°C. The X-ray diffraction patterns of all TiO2 films confirmed the anatase structure. The surface morphology of the films has been observed by atomic force microscope and field emission scanning electron microscope. The morphology of TiO2 thin films strongly depends on annealing temperatures and number of coatings. Incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency is calculated for all the solar cells with different TiO2 thin films to evaluate the economic viability of this technique. It has been observed that the photoelectric conversion efficiency of DSCs increases with the optimization of annealing temperature as well as with the increase of the numbers of layers.