1. Improving Photoactive Surface Area of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells Through Supercritical Fluid Dye Penetration
Kirk J. Ziegler, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Florida
The goal of this research program is to understand the effect of titania film thickness, porosity and pore diameter on the effectiveness of supercritical fluids to improve dye impregnation and device performance in dye-sensitized solar cells. Two objectives are required to achieve this goal: (1) control the morphology and thickness of titania nanoparticle films and (2) determine the optimum conditions for dye impregnation.
10 mm
30 minutes total –
Figure 2: The solubility of N-719 dye in various ethanol/CO2 mixtures was measured by introducing dye into a high-pressure, variable-volume view cell equipped with a sapphire window for visual observation. Absorbance spectroscopy was used to measure the concentration as a function of temperature (35 – 60 C) and pressure (100 – 400 bar).
Figure 1: We have developed a new process to generate thicker titania films on both indium- and fluorine-doped tin oxide. These crystalline films are up to 25 microns thick in a single layer. Film delamination and cracking are significantly reduced by careful control over the processing parameters.