Solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells based on ZnO nanocrystals

Boucharef, Mourad; Bin, Catherine Di; Boumaza, M.; Colas, Maggy; Snaith, Henry J.; Ratier, Bernard; Bouclé, Johann

doi:10.1088/0957-4484/21/20/205203

Cited by 47 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…26 Many investigators have exploited different synthetic methods to prepare Zn 1Àx Sn x O nanocomposites including multistep solvent-based routes such as co-precipitation, [27][28][29] which is used in this study, hydrothermal 30,31 and sol-gel. 32,33 However, to the best of our knowledge, only a few articles have focused on ss-DSSCs with nanocomposite photo-anodes, 34,35 which reported low efficiencies of up to 0.34 and 0.5% for ss-DSSCs based on ZnO only. Herein, we report the photovoltaic performance of ss-DSSCs solar cells based on Zn 1Àx Sn x O nanocomposites photoanodes as an electron-transport layer prepared via the co-precipitation method.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells based on Zn_1−xSn_xO nanocomposite photoanodes

et al. 2018

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Solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells (ss-DSSCs) comprising Sn 2+ -substituted ZnO nanopowder were purposefully tailored via a co-precipitation method. The solar cells assembled in this work were sensitized with N719 ruthenium dye and insinuated with spiro-OMeTAD as a solid hole transport layer (HTL). Evidently, significant enhancement in cell efficiency was accomplished with Sn 2+ ions-substituted ZnO photoelectrodes by maintaining the weight ratio of SnO at 5%. The overall power conversion efficiency was improved from 3.0% for the cell with pure ZnO to 4.3% for the cell with 5% SnO substitution. The improvement in the cell efficiency with Sn 2+ -substituted ZnO photoelectrodes is attributed to the considerably large surface area of the nanopowders for dye adsorption, efficient charge separation and the suppression of charge recombination provided by SnO. Furthermore, the energy distinction between the conduction band edges of SnO and ZnO implied a type II band alignment.Moreover, the durability as well as the stability of 15 assembled cells were studied to show the outstanding long-term stability of the devices made of Sn 2+ ion substituted ZnO, and the PCE of each cell remained stable and $96% of its primary value was retained for up to 100 h. Subsequently, the efficacy was drastically reduced to $35% after 250 h of storage. IntroductionGenerally, the most abundant source of renewable energy is solar energy. 1 To date, single and polycrystalline silicon solar cell technologies have dominated the solar cell market, representing an 80% share.2 However, their growth and mass production are restricted because of their high cost, large energy consumption and contamination generated from silicon-based solar cell fabrication. Therefore, many researchers have developed relatively inexpensive and eco-friendly dyesensitized solar cells (DSSCs) as a substitute for these devices.3 In this context, dye sensitized solar cells are the most favorable devices for efficient conversion of light to electricity because of their low production expenditure and simple fabrication.4-7 To date, the certied efficiency record for DSSCs is approximately 11.1% for a small cell, and large-scale tests have evidenced the great need for their commercialization. Furthermore, these cells are heavy, prone to leakage and have complex chemistry. 9,10 Accordingly, many attempts have been focused on the use of solid-state hole transporting materials (HTMs) to achieve practicability of DSSCs. In this regard, there are many different hole transport materials (conjugated polymers) including pentacene, 11 poly(triphenyldiamine), 12 polythiophene, 13 and poly (3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT), 14 which can induce charge carrier generation in ss-DSSCs. The most widely utilized hole transfer layer (HTL) is 2,2 0 ,7,7 0 -tetrakis-(N,N-di-pmethoxyphenylamine)-9,9 0 -spirobiuorene, also known as a spiro-MeOTAD, 15 due to its ability to be deposited from solution using different techniques. In 1998, the rst solid-state DSSCs were developed by Bach et al.;16 they d...

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells based on Zn_1−xSn_xO nanocomposite photoanodes

et al. 2018

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“…Similar to the Sample A coating (Figure 7), the onset of the reduction of sintered NiO x nanoparticles (sample B) occurs at approximately 2.6 V. 9,47 However, the cathodic current density exchanged by Sample B for the NiO x reduction [potential range 1.3 -2.6 V vs Li + /Li ( Figure 8)], is generally lower than that obtained for sample A (Figure 7). Despite the larger surface area of NiO x electrodes obtained for sample B, (Figure 4b), [55][56][57][58] and for sol-gel deposited coatings, 6b,14b the current density associated with NiO x reduction [Eq. (1)] is approximately two times higher for the microblast deposited sample A, which possesses a larger particle size in the order of several microns ( Figure 2).…”

Section: Electrochemical Properties Of Microblast Deposited Nio Xmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electrochemical characterization of NiO electrodes deposited via a scalable powder microblasting technique

Awais

Dini

MacElroy

et al. 2013

Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry

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Publication information Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry, Publisher Elsevier The UCD community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters! (@ucd_oa) Some rights reserved. For more information, please see the item record link above. In this contribution a novel powder coating processing technique (microblasting) for the fabrication of nickel oxide (NiOx) coatings is reported. ∼1.2 μm thick NiOx coatings are deposited at 20 mm2 s−1 by the bombardment of the NiOx powder onto a Ni sheet using an air jet at a speed of more than 180 m s−1. Microblast deposited NiOx coatings can be prepared at a high processing rate, do not need further thermal treatment. Therefore, this scalable method is time and energy efficient. The mechano-chemical bonding between the powder particles and substrate results in the formation of strongly adherent NiOx coatings. Microstructural analyses were carried out using SEM, the chemical composition and coatings orientation were determined by XPS and XRD, respectively. The electroactivity of the microblast deposited NiOx coatings was compared with that of NiOx coatings obtained by sintering NiOx nanoparticles previously sprayed onto Ni sheets. In the absence of a redox mediator in the electrolyte, the reduction current of microblast deposited NiOx coatings, when analyzed in anhydrous environment, was two times larger than that produced by higher porosity NiOx nanoparticles coatings of the same thickness obtained through spray coating followed by sintering. Under analogous experimental conditions thin layers of NiOx obtained by using the sol-gel method, ultrasonic spray-and electro-deposition show generally lower current density with respect to microblast samples of the same thickness. The electrochemical reduction of NiOx coatings is controlled by the bulk characteristics of the oxide and the relatively ordered structure of microblast NiOx coatings with respect to sintered NiOx nanoparticles here considered, is expected to increase the electron mobility and ionic charge diffusion lengths in the microblast samples. Finally, the increased level of adhesion of the microblast film on the metallic substrate affords a good electrical contact at the metal/metal oxide interface, and constitutes another reason in support of the choice of microblast as low-cost and scalable deposition method for oxide layers to be employed in electrochemical applications. Electrochemical characterization of NiO electrodes deposited via a scalable powder microblasting technique

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“…[ 27 ] The NG was characterized by introducing ultrasonic waves through the water media without sunlight illumination; the corresponding J-V curve showed that the U OC -NG was ∼ 0.019 V and the I NG was ∼ 0.3 pA cm − 2 (the left inset of Figure 3 a). A J-V curve of the NG (Figure 4 a) was recorded when the sunlight was turned on and off.…”

Section: Communicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Compact Hybrid Cell Based on a Convoluted Nanowire Structure for Harvesting Solar and Mechanical Energy

Wang

2011

Advanced Materials

147

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The harvesting of energy from the environment dates back to the age of the windmill and the waterwheel. Their modern counterparts are hydro-power plants, wind farms, solar farms, and more recently, novel piezoelectric devices [ 1 ] for power generation from mechanical vibration. [ 2 ] Fully utilizing power sources such as light, [3][4][5] thermal, and mechanical energy is of great importance to our long-term energy needs [ 6 ] and sustainable development [ 7 ] At a small scale, the development of a wireless self-powered system [ 8 ] that harvests its operating energy from the environment is of great importance and an attractive proposition for sensing, [ 9 ] personal electronic, [ 10 ] and defense technologies. Recently, harvesting multiple type energy using a single device has been a new trend in energy technologies. The fi rst multimode energy harvester [ 11 ] has been demonstrated for simultaneously harvesting solar and mechanical energy. Recently, the hybrid cell has been developed for concurrently harvesting biochemical and mechanical energy for in vivo applications. [ 12 , 13 ] This multimode energy harvester has the potential of fully utilizing the energy in the environment under which the devices will be operating.The prototype of the nanowire-based hybrid cell demonstrated to harvest both solar and mechanical energy is using a dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) [ 14 , 15 ] and piezoelectric nanogenerator. [ 16 ] However, due to the encapsulation problem posed by the use of the liquid electrolyte [ 17 ] in conventional DSSCs, solvent leakage and evaporation are two major obstacles, thus the present hybrid cell is actually a back-to-back physical integration of a nanogenerator and a DSSC on the same substrate, which may limit its performance. We report here an innovative approach that convolutes a solid-state dye-sensitized solar cell [ 18 ] and an ultrasonic wave driven piezoelectric nanogenerator into a single compact structure for concurrently harvesting solar and mechanical energy. The structure is fabricated based on vertical ZnO nanowire arrays [ 19 ] with the introduction of solid electrolyte and metal coating. Under light illumination of a simulated sun emission (100 mW/cm 2 ), the optimum power is enhanced by 6% after incorporating the contribution of the nanogenerator. This research provides a platform towards multimode energy harvesting as practical power sources.The design of the compact hybrid cell (CHC) was to convolute the roles played by the nanowire arrays to simultaneously perform their functionalities in a nanogenerator and a DSSC. The main frame structure consists of two sets of ZnO nanowire arrays that are placed in a "teeth-to-teeth" confi guration [ 20 ] ( Figure 1 a), as previously demonstrated for the fi ber based nanogenerator. [ 21 ] The DSSC follows the template offered by the nanowire arrays at the top, which is fi nally coated with a layer of metal to serve as the electrode for the nanogenerator, and the nanowire array at the bottom acts as piezoelectric structure for converti...

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Solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells based on ZnO nanocrystals

Cited by 47 publications

References 44 publications

Solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells based on Zn_1−xSn_xO nanocomposite photoanodes

Solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells based on Zn_1−xSn_xO nanocomposite photoanodes

Electrochemical characterization of NiO electrodes deposited via a scalable powder microblasting technique

Compact Hybrid Cell Based on a Convoluted Nanowire Structure for Harvesting Solar and Mechanical Energy

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Solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells based on ZnO nanocrystals

Cited by 47 publications

References 44 publications

Solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells based on Zn1−xSnxO nanocomposite photoanodes

Solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells based on Zn1−xSnxO nanocomposite photoanodes

Electrochemical characterization of NiO electrodes deposited via a scalable powder microblasting technique

Compact Hybrid Cell Based on a Convoluted Nanowire Structure for Harvesting Solar and Mechanical Energy

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Product

Resources

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Solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells based on Zn_1−xSn_xO nanocomposite photoanodes

Solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells based on Zn_1−xSn_xO nanocomposite photoanodes