Pacific Rim Symposium on Surfaces, Coatings and Interfaces (PacSurf 2014)
    Energy Harvesting & Storage Tuesday Sessions
       Session EH-TuP

Paper EH-TuP17
Nano-patterned Pt Counter electrode Enhancing Light harvesting for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Tuesday, December 9, 2014, 4:00 pm, Room Mauka

Session: Energy Harvesting & Storage Poster Session
Presenter: Won Seok Chi, Yonsei University, Korea
Authors: W.S. Chi, Yonsei University, Korea
D.J. Kim, Yonsei University, Korea
J.P. Jung, Yonsei University, Korea
J.H. Kim, Yonsei University, Korea
Correspondent: Click to Email
Nano-patterning is one of the most simple and effective techniques for efficiently light trapping to boost the energy conversion efficiency. By imprinting with poly(dimethyl siloxane) (PDMS) nanostamp cross-rotate two steps onto thin layered commercial TiO2 paste, a mesh-shaped (200 nm × 200nm) TiO2 scaffold electrode with a large area was fabricated. Platinum (Pt) nanoparticles deposited onto TiO2 pattern by diverse method such as sputtering, thermal deposition and UV-radiation deposition. The Pt nanoparticles distribution as mesh-shaped structure onto counter electrode was characterized by a field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) and an atomic force microscope (AFM). Moreover, the light trapping ability was measured reflectance by comparison of mesh-shaped patterned and non-patterned counter electrode as a function of angle. For the four cases : 1) patterned Pt counter electrode by sputtering, 2) non-patterned Pt counter electrode by sputtering, 3) non-patterned Pt counter electrode by thermal deposition and 4) patterned counter electrode by UV-radiation deposition were fabricated for all-solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells (ssDSSCs). Among them, patterned Pt counter electrode by sputtering assembled solar cell showed highest solar energy conversion efficiency up to 7.0%. This remarkable result, observed for N719 dye based DSSC, was due to enhanced light harvesting and superior surface area confirmed by incident photon-to current efficiency (IPCE), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and cyclic voltammetry (CV) measurements. More importantly, we believe this approach is universally applicable to a variety of electrochemical cells requiring Pt catalysts such as fuel cells and catalytic chemical reactors. Furthermore, this process could include nano- and micro-sized patterns and can be extended to metal nanoparticles other than Pt.