Comparison of the Photoelectrochemical Characteristics of Dye-Sensitized Inverse-Opal Electrodes Prepared by Various Liquid-Phase Methods

Abstract

The photovoltaic characteristics (short circuit current, open circuit voltage, fill factor, and photon-to-electron conversion efficiency) and electrochemical impedance measurements of normal and inverse-opal dye-sensitized electrodes were carried out in a transparent electrolyte (0.6 M triethhanolamine/0.5 M lithium perchlorate in acetonitrile) using three different methods; electrophoretic deposition, TiCl4 coating, and liquid-phase deposition (LPD). X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis revealed that each electrode was composed of anatase TiO2. The impedance elements discussed previously were substrate resistance (R0), interface resistance at indium tin oxide (ITO)/titanium oxide (TiO2) (R1), contact resistance between TiO2 particles (R2), interface resistance at TiO2/dye/electrolyte and counter electrode/electrolyte (R3), and diffusion resistance of the electrolyte (R4). The internal resistances of inverse opal electrodes were varied with the preparation methods, especially in relation to the contact resistance between R2 and R3. The electrode prepared by LPD exhibited the smallest internal resistances and the highest photon-to-electron conversion efficiency among the three methods.

CdS/CdSe Co-Sensitized Solar Cells Based on a New SnO2 Photoanode with a Three-Dimensionally Interconnected Ordered Porous Structure

“…A routine three-step fabrication method is usually adopted to obtain inverse opal structures: (1) prepare the template with close-packed, uniformly sized spheres; (2) fill the interstitial spaces with a fluid precursor; and (3) remove the template to afford a porous inverse replica. Each step is indispensable to producing high-quality inverse opal structures. − Recently, a new blade-coating technique combined with new liquid-phase deposition (LPD) has been developed in our lab, which can provide good quality opal structure templates on a large scale, and the fabrication procedure is time-saving . Herein, the SnO 2 inverse opal (io-SnO 2 ) photoanodes for CdS/CdSe co-sensitized solar cells have been developed based on this method, as shown in Scheme .…”

Pore size dependence of self-assembled type photonic crystal on dye-sensitized solar cells efficiency utilising Chlorine e6

“…The authors had assessed the structural analysis, photovoltaic characteristics and electrochemical impedance measurements of the normal and inverse opal dye-sensitized electrodes prepared by three different methods: electrophoretic deposition, TiCl 4 coating and liquid-phase deposition (LPD) [26]. The electrode prepared by LPD exhibited the least internal resistance and highest photonto-electron conversion efficiency among the three methods.…”