Enhancement in dye-sensitized solar cells based on MgO-coated TiO₂electrodes by reactive DC magnetron sputtering

Abstract

A surface modification method was carried out by reactive DC magnetron sputtering to fabricate TiO(2) electrodes coated with insulating MgO for dye-sensitized solar cells. The MgO-coated TiO(2) electrode had been characterized by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDX), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), UV-vis spectrophotometer, cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The study results revealed that the TiO(2) modification increases dye adsorption, decreases trap states and suppresses interfacial recombination. The effects of sputtering MgO for different times on the performance of DSSCs were investigated. It indicated that sputtering MgO for 3 min on TiO(2) increases all cell parameters, resulting in increasing efficiency from 6.45% to 7.57%.

TiO2@MgO core-shell film: Fabrication and application to dye-sensitized solar cells

“…This leads to the increase in V oc after coating in DSSCs [11] . The reduction of V oc in our experiment, which is converse to the previous report [11,16] , is still under investigation. In addition, it can be found that the MgO layer is benefit for the f F and efficiency of the cell due to the energy barrier formed by the thin MgO layer.…”

“…While elongating the dipping time to 30 min, η decreased to 4.80%. Wu et al [16] fabricated MgO-coated TiO 2 electrodes by reactive DC magnetron sputtering and investigated the influence of sputtering MgO for different times on the performance of DSSC. The TiO 2 electrode sputtering MgO for 3 min electrode has the highest efficiency, and the parameters of the cells decrease when the sputtering time was extended to 30 min.…”

Electrochemical methods for the characterization and interfacial study of dye-sensitized solar cell

“…Using these parameters mentioned above, researchers can compare electron transport and diffusion property at different photoanodes in DSSC, such as photoanodes made of different materials (e.g., TiO 2 or combined oxides) [79][80][81][82][83][84][85][86][87], different morphologies and different structures (e.g., nanoparticles, nanotubes, nanorods, or complex structures) [88][89][90][91][92][93][94][95][96], different crystal forms (e.g., anatase and rutile for TiO 2 ) [97], and different substrates (e.g., rigid or flexible) [90,98]. For instance, we used EIS to compare two different microspheres photoanode-based DSSC, and the obtained Nyquist plots were shown in Fig.…”

Applications of Oxide Coatings in Photovoltaic Devices

“…Palomares et al compared the use of ultra-thin Al 2 O 3 , ZrO 2 and SiO 2 as ultra-thin blocking layers and all cells using these materials showed equal or better performance than with a TiO 2 blocking layer, with the best performance for Al 2 O 3 [126]. Other oxides used as blocking layers for DSSC include Nb 2 O 5 [127] and MgO [128].…”