Development of Macro-Porous Silicon Based Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells with Improved Light Trapping

Abstract

The light harvesting efficiency is counted as an important factor in the power conversion efficiency of DSSCs. There are two measures to improve this parameter, including enhancing the dye-loading capacity and increasing the light trapping in the photoanode structure. In this paper, these tasks are addressed by introducing a macro-porous silicon (PSi) substrate as photoanode. The effects of the novel photoanode structure on the DSSC performance have been investigated by using energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, photocurrent-voltage, UV-visible spectroscopy, reflectance spectroscopy, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurements. The results indicated that bigger porosity percentage of the PSi structure improved the both anti-reflective/light-trapping and dye-loading capacity properties. PSi based DSSCs own higher power conversion efficiency due to its remarkable higher photocurrent, open circuit voltage, and fill factor. Percent porosity of 64%, PSi(III), resulted in nearly 50 percent increment in power conversion efficiency compared with conventional DSSC. This paper showed that PSi can be a good candidate for the improvement of light harvesting efficiency in DSSCs. Furthermore, this study can be considered a valuable reference for more investigations in the design of multifunctional devices which will profit from integrated on-chip solar power.

Electrical investigation of ITO films in Al-doped crystalline silicon solar cells

“…The rear blanket metal based on LF33-750 (Ferro) was screen-printed and baked at 150°C for 10 min [27]. Figure 3(b) shows EDX analysis of the film demonstrating elemental concentrations typical of ITO films [28].…”

Potential Dependence of Electrochemical Etching Reaction of Si(111) Surface in a Fluoride Solution Studied by Electrochemical and Scanning Tunneling Microscopic Techniques

“…Silicon surface has attracted considerable attention because it shows unique physical properties when it is modified [1,2]. The modified silicon surface has been used as the functional surfaces for various applications such as photoelectrochemical hydrogen production [3,4], sensors [5,6], photoluminescence [7][8][9], electroluminescence [10], solar cell [11], and lithium ion battery [12,13]. These properties result from the nanostructure of the silicon surface [3].…”

Electrochemical Reduction of SiO2 Granules to One-Dimensional Si Rods Using Ag-Si Eutectic Alloy

“…Among these, solar energy is the most ubiquitous energy source. Photovoltaic (PV) cells that convert solar energy into electricity are made using various materials, such as Si, GaAs, CdTe, and perovskites [1][2][3][4][5][6]. Crystalline Si-based PV cells are the most widely used and account for more than 90% of the commercial PV cell market due to their high stability, conversion efficiency, and economic feasibility [1].…”