All carbon nanotube fiber electrode-based dye-sensitized photovoltaic wire

Abstract

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been recently spun into macroscopic fiber, in which CNTs are highly aligned along the axial direction, providing excellent mechanical and electrical properties for a wide variety of applications. One CNT fiber adsorbed with dye molecules functions as working electrode, while another CNT fiber is used as counter electrode. Two fiber electrodes are twined to produce the desired photovoltaic wire with high promise in many applications. In particular, this photovoltaic wire can be woven into textiles or integrated into various flexible equipment which remains challenging to the conventional planar solar cells.

High efficiency flexible fiber-type dye-sensitized solar cells with multi-working electrodes

“…Among them, the metal wires are considered to be more promising than the relatively poorly conducting flexible plastics and opaque metal sheets. Thus the flexible fiber-type dye-sensitized solar cells (FF-DSSCs) based on metal wires are very attractive [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28]. Although the FF-DSSCs have already exhibited good performances, there is still room for further improvement.…”

“…As mentioned in the beginning of this article, in most of the previous works, the conversion efficiencies of the SWFF-DSSCs were calculated with only the light incident to the working electrode taken into consideration. That is, the product of the diameter and effective length of the working electrode was used as the cross section of the incident light [6,[17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28]. In this article, in contrast, the product of the diameter and effective length of the capillary tube, instead of the working electrode, is used as the cross section of the incident light, so that the light received by the whole DSSC is taken into consideration and a direct comparison with the conventional DSSCs can be made.…”

“…First, the use of a platinum (Pt) microwire as the counter electrode sacrifices the advantage of low cost of an FF-DSSC. Second, in the calculation of the conversion efficiency of an FF-DSSC, the product of the diameter and effective length of the working electrode is usually used to represent the cross section of the incident light [6,[17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28]. That is, only the light incident to the flank side of the working electrode is taken into consideration and the light incident to other part of an FF-DSSC is ignored.…”

Enhancement of electrical conductivity of carbon nanotube fibers by copper sulfide plating

“…Since CNT assemblies manufactured through these two methods are fabricated in a web or fiber form, they do not need to be dispersed and can be easily handled. Due to these advantages, numerous attempts have been made to utilize CNT assemblies as materials for power cables and battery electrodes [11,12]. Their potential as power cables is supported by the fact that individual multi-walled CNT (MWCNTs) has an electrical conductivity of 1.9×10 7 S/m [13] as great as that of copper at 6×10 7 S/m [14].…”

Historic Developments, Current Technologies and Potential of Nanotechnology to Develop Next Generation Solar Cells with Improved Efficiency

“…Palladium nanocrystallite decorated TiO2 nanotubes (Pd/TNTs) improve the light absorption in visible region which enhance photo catalytic activity of solar cells . In another study a composite film composed of platinum nanoparticles and carbon fibers was coated on FTO glass as a counter electrode in dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) shown 7.77% efficiency (Cai, Chen & Peng 2010). Patent No 20100089447 describes the use of conductive layers prepared of Silver nanoparticles or Magnesium nano layer (1-20 nm) thereof mixture (Takahito, Chihaya, 2007;Bulent, Burak, Richard, 2010).…”