A quasi-solid electrolyte dye-sensitized solar cell (QSDSSC) was fabricated, which used an environment-friendly organic MK2 dye. The quasi-solid electrolyte was fabricated based on I -/I3redox couple and polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) polymer. Ozone treatment technique has been utilized to clean and improve the hydrophilicity of TiO � thin films, as a result, its dye-adsorption capacity was enhanced. Experimental results with a solar simulator showed that 40 % improvement of the conversion efficiency was obtained with the QSDSSCs fabricated with the photoanodes undergone the ozone treatment compared with the QSDSSCs fabricated with the photoanodes without the ozone treatment. Furthermore, we also conducted a stability test on the QSDSSCs fabricated with the ozone-treated photoanodes to study the stability of the organic MK2 dye and the PMMA-based gel electrolyte.

No abstract

The conversion efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) depends on the performance of the photoanode and the counter electrode. In this paper, UV-ozone treatment has been applied to the photoanode to clean and increase the hydrophilicity of the photoanode. As a result, the dye adsorption capacity was improved. Also, low-cost multiwalled carbon nanotube (CNT) combined with poly (diallyl dimethylammonium chloride) (PDDA) was used to fabricate the counter electrode. The CNT/PDDA counter electrode was optimized to maximize its performance. By using the ozone-treated photoanode and optimum CNT/PDDA counter electrode, the conversion efficiency has increased by about 64%.