We have developed dye-sensitized solar cells using novel sensitizers with enhanced transmittance of red (625–675 nm) and blue (425–475 nm) wavebands to control the illumination condition in the greenhouse. Novel ruthenium bipyridyl sensitizers with general formulas (Me3PhN)4[Ru(dcbpy)2(NCS)2] (JJ-7) and (Me3BnN)4[Ru(dcbpy)2(NCS)2] (JJ-9) have been synthesized and demonstrated as efficient sensitizers in dye-sensitized solar cells for greenhouse application. Under standard AM 1.5 sunlight, the solar cell ofJJ-7using a liquid-based electrolyte exhibits a short-circuit photocurrent density of 8.49 mA/cm2, an open-circuit voltage of 0.83 V, and a fill factor of 0.71, corresponding to an overall conversion efficiency of 4.96% on 5 μm TiO2film. The transmittance ofJJ-7andJJ-9shows 62.0% and 61.0% at 660 nm and 18.0% and 15.0% at 440 nm for cultivation on 5 μm TiO2film, respectively.

The effect of a dense TiO 2 blocking layer prepared using the sol-gel method on the performance of dyesensitized solar cells was studied. The blocking layer formed directly on the working electrode, separated it from the electrolyte, and prevented the back transfer of electrons from the electrode to the electrolyte. The dyesensitized solar cells were prepared with a working electrode of fluorine-doped tin oxide glass coated with a blocking layer of dense TiO 2 , a dye-attached mesoporous TiO 2 film, and a nano-gel electrolyte, and a counter electrode of Pt-deposited FTO glass. The gel processing conditions and heat treatment temperature for blocking layer formation affected the morphology and performance of the cells, and their optimal values were determined. The introduction of the blocking layer increased the conversion efficiency of the cell by 7.37% for the cell without a blocking layer to 8.55% for the cell with a dense TiO 2 blocking layer, under standard illumination conditions. The short-circuit current density (J sc ) and open-circuit voltage (V oc ) also were increased by the addition of a dense TiO 2 blocking layer.

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This paper discusses the fabrication and characterization of electrospun nanofiber scaffolds made of polystyrene (PS). The scaffolds were characterized in terms of their basis material molecular weight, fiber diameter distribution, contact angles, contact angle hysteresis, and transmittance. We propose an aligned electrospun fiber scaffold using an alignment tool (alignment jig) for the fabrication of highly hydrophobic (θW > 125°) and highly transparent (T > 80.0%) films. We fabricated the alignment jig to align the electrospun fibers parallel to each other. The correlation between the water contact angles and surface roughness of the aligned electrospun fibers was investigated. We found that the water contact angle increased as the surface roughness was increased. Therefore, the hydrophobic properties of the aligned electrospun fibers were enhanced by increasing the surface roughness. With the change in the electrospinning mode to produce aligned fibers rather than randomly distributed fibers, the transmittance of the aligned electrospun fibers increased. The increase in the porous area, leading to better light transmittance in comparison to randomly distributed light scattering through the aligned electrospun fibers increased with the fibers. Through the above investigation of electrospinning parameters, we obtained the simultaneous transparent (>80%) and hydrophobic (θW > 140°) electrospun fiber scaffold. The aligned electrospun fibers of PS had a maximum transmittance of 91.8% at the electrospinning time of 10 s. The water contact angle (WCA) of the aligned electrospun fibers increased from 77° to 141° as the deposition time increased from 10 s to 40 s. The aligned fibers deposited at 40 s showed highly hydrophobic characteristics (θW > 140°).