Design and optical characterisation of an efficient light trapping structure for dye-sensitized solar cell integrated windows

Abstract

Windows integrated with semi-transparent photovoltaics (PVs) such as Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSCs) show good potential in improving building performance, in terms of providing daylight, reducing unnecessary solar heat gain and also generating electricity onsite. However, low cell efficiency remains an obstacle for their applications in windows. Using light trapping structures in DSSCs shows the potential to improve solar to electrical conversion efficiency. In this work, different pyramid-patterned titanium dioxide (TiO2) geometries are designed to enhance the photon absorption in DSSCs, and characterised using a Monte-Carlo algorithm based 3D ray-tracing simulation. Various studies were carried out under average irradiation, spectrum dependent irradiation and different solar incidental angles, respectively. The simulation results at the average irradiation wavelength (540 nm) were compared to those from a previous study using Scanning Photocurrent Microscopy (SPCM) and a reasonable agreement has been achieved. It was found that the structure based on the pyramid array of side wall angle 54.7° can significantly enhance light absorption by up to ~25% and the maximum achievable photocurrent density (MAPD) by up to ~45% across the spectrum of 380-800 nm, when compared to a planar control counterpart.

Fabrication of textured substrates for dye-sensitized solar cells using polydimethylsiloxane nanoimprint lithography

“…They used FTO glasses with various morphology of FTO under various SPD conditions [11] and with a textured structure etched by RIE [15]. Another is the TiO 2 layer with a textured structure, fabricated by imprinting [16,17], patterned screen printing [18], and anodic titanium oxide [19]. Mainly researches used commercial FTO glasses.…”

Color Comfort Evaluation of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell (DSSC) Based Building-Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) Glazing after 2 Years of Ambient Exposure

“…Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) based building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) windows are promising for low energy building architecture, as fabrication of DSSC involves neither expensive semiconductor substrates nor high-level processing steps, consist of nontoxic and low-cost raw-materials, and spend less energy during the manufacturing process than conventional PV technologies. Therefore, the integrated properties of DSSC-based BIPV implies significant research interest − The transparency of DSSC PV can be altered by tuning the size of titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) nanoparticles and the thickness of the film. Moreover, DSSC possesses a positive temperature coefficient compared to crystalline PV cells.…”