Fe-Cu Compounds in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells: Influence of Magnetic Field on Mesoporous Structure

Abstract

This paper investigates the effect of applying a static and dynamic magnetic field in the process of depositing the Fe-Cu compound on the working electrode of a dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC). Depositing this compound on glass is especially hard due to the unfavorable layer inconsistencies that accompany the utilization of the doctor blade technique and the dissociation of the compound at a temperature of 700˚C, which prevents its ability to be evaporated or sintered beyond that temperature. The Fe-Cu compound is appreciably cheaper, relatively simple to produce and is more absorptive (>81%) in the Vis-NIR than the standard TiO2 mesoporous material normally used for DSSCs. The high diffusion of the Fe into the Cu lattice allows the compound to behave as a semiconductor and is found to have a bandgap of 1.8V. The sensitizer used in the production of a test cell consisted of a Schiff base dye with a compatible bandgap of 1.68 eV and resulted in more generated photocurrent than its TiO2 counterpart, which is a promising result for an alternative mesoporous layer in solar cells.