Development of flexible dye-sensitized solar cell based on pre-dyed zinc oxide nanoparticle

Abstract

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) based on dyed zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles made by simple pre-dyeing method have been developed. Nanoporous ZnO film has been fabricated on transparent conducting oxide plastic polymer substrates. In order to improve lower porosity and bad interparticle connectivity, hot-press method was applied to pre-dyed ZnO film on the plastic substrate photoelectrode. The result that the hot-press treatment greatly improved the short circuit current of DSSCs based on pre-dyed ZnO, indicates electrical contact of nanoparticles plays crucial role. In order to increase conversion efficiency, one of important points is how to enhance absorption of photon in wide wavelength region. We have successfully demonstrated that DSSCs based on two different kinds of pre-dyed ZnO composite film can expand absorption wavelength region and showed remarkable improvement of short circuit current.