Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell Based on TiO 2 -Graphene Composite Electrodes

Abstract

Dye-sensitized solar cells(DSSCs) based on TiO2 film photo anode incorporated with different amt. of grapheme nanosheet(GNS) are fabricated and their photovoltaic performance are investigated. The TiO2-GNS composite electrode has been prepd. by a direct mixing method. The DSSC performance of this composite electrode was measured using N3 dye as a sensitizer. The performance of DSSCs using the TiO2-GNS composite electrodes is dependent on the GNS loading in the electrodes. The results show that the DSSCs incorporating 0.01 wt% GNS in TiO2 photo anode demonstrates a max. power conversion efficiency of 5.73%, 26% higher than that without GNS. The performance improvement is ascribed to increased N3 dye adsorption, the redn. of electron recombination and back transport reaction as well as enhancement of electron transport with the introduction of GNS. The presence of both TiO2 (anatase) and GNS has been confirmed by Field Emission SEM(FE-SEM). The decrease in recombination due to GNS in DSSCs has been investigated by the Electrochem. Impedance Spectroscopy. [on SciFinder(R)]