Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSC) from Black Rice and its Performance Improvement by Depositing Interconnected Copper (Copper Bridge) into the Space between TiO₂ Nanoparticles

Abstract

Dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) which employed natural dye from black rice has been successfully fabricated and improved its performance by depositing interconnected copper (copper bridge) on the space between TiO2. The copper bridge has significant role in minimizing recombination of electron-hole which occurred in TiO2 surface by trapping electron and facilitating to anode. The presence of interconnected copper nanoparticle in the space between TiO2 nanoparticle was confirmed by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and X-Ray Diffractometer (XRD). The current-voltage (I-V) characterization of DSSC solar cells by using Keithley 617 was also performed to investigate performance of solar cells under sun illumination in varying intensities. It is found that performance of copper coated DSSC solar cells (efficiency 0.35% and fill factor 0.35) is higher than DSSC without copper coating (efficiency 0.17% and fill factor 0.35). This result is consistent with impedance spectroscopy analyzing where the internal resistance of copper coated DSSC solar cells is lower than DSSC without coated. It is concluded that performance of DSSC increasing with decreasing of internal resistance. Our finding is higher than other researcher reports in Ref. [13] and [14] with similar structure and kind of natural dye. In addition, this paper also reports the use of polymer electrolyte which employing polyvinyl acetate (PVA) containing lithium ion to maintain long-term stability of device.

New design of potentially low-cost solar cells using TiO2/graphite composite as photon absorber

“…In recent years, many attempts have been made to produce solar cells using cheaper materials, and easily applied and readily scalable methods, because the manufacturing process consists of only a few simple steps: spraying of TiO 2 suspension on the TCO's surface, electroplating of metallic bridges, adhesion of polymer electrolyte, and fixing a counter electrode [1][2][3][4][5]. Although the efficiency of our solar cells does not match the efficiency of presently applied solar cells, our solar cells might compete with presently applied solar cells economically, especially when considering factors such as production and maintenance costs and efficiency.…”

Preliminary study of application of Moringa oleifera resin as polymer electrolyte in DSSC solar cells

“…A suspension was prepared by dispersing 5 g of TiO 2 into 10 mL of distilled water, followed by stirring for 45 min. The homogeneous suspension was sprayed on the ITO surface, which was maintained at a temperature of approximately 150 C to evaporate the water [9][10][11][12]. The spray process was repeated 10 times to obtain an appropriate thickness.…”

“…TiO 2 films were deposited on ITO substrates (10 Ω/cm 2 ) using a spray method [8][9][10][11][12]. A suspension was prepared by dispersing 5 g of TiO 2 into 10 mL of distilled water, followed by stirring for 45 min.…”

“…A search for high conductivity and low-cost polymer electrolyte material has therefore been necessary. Some efforts have reported the development of polymer electrolyte as the polymer electrolyte materials [1,[9][10][11][12]. However, the observed conversion efficiencies of these cells remained low.…”

“…Many authors have reported the synthesis of high efficiency dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), and some of these solar cells have been made using simple deposition methods [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. However, the use of expensive materials has limited the prospects for mass production of these devices.…”