Invited Papers

Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on

Nanostructures (ICNS4)

12-14 March 2012, Kish Island, I.R. Iran

INV 08

Fabrication and Characterization of Functional Materials for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Eric Wei-Guang Diau*
Department of Applied Chemistry and Institute of Molecular Science,
National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu 30010, Taiwan
diau@mail.nctu.edu.tw

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) have attracted much attention recently due to its potential as a cost-effective alternative for siliconbased solar cells. In this lecture, I will present our recent developments on novel electrodes for highly efficient DSSC. For the working
electrodes, novel one-dimensional (1D) TiO2 nanostructures were synthesized based on either sol-gel/hydrothermal or anodization
approach with modifications of structural morphologies and compositions in order to improve the charge-collection efficiency of the
device. The original TiO2 nanotube (TNT) arrays of ~25 m length were produced by a typical anodization method, and a hydrothermal
post-treatment was employed to effectively dope the sulfur element into the TNT substrate. The XRD results indicate that the anatase
phase of TNT can be produced at a low-temperature condition after the hydrothermal process. The XPS results further confirm that the
sulfur cations were firmly intercalated into the surface of TNT with the amounts of the S-dopants increasing as the concentration of the
precursor increases. The photovoltaic performances of the S-doped devices exhibit a systematic trend with the best device performance
occurring on the device with a middle doping amount. For the counter electrodes, we report novel platinum nanostructures fabricated
according to a cyclic electro-deposition (CED) method at room temperature in solution containing the Pt precursor and inorganic salt
electrolyte. Remarkable Pt nanostructures from nanocluster, nanosheet, nanograss to nanoflower were produced through morphological control via variation of either period of CED scans or concentration of the precursor. Pt films with uniform nanograss structure have
great electro-catalytic performance and intrinsic light-scattering, perfectly suitable for use as counter electrodes for DSSC. The DSSC
device made with the Pt-nanograss counter electrode attained enhanced performance compared to a conventional thermal decomposition method under similar experimental conditions. The cyclic voltammetry (CV), light-induced transient photoelectric (VOC/JSC decays),
electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and intensity-modulated photoelectric (IMPS/IMVS) measurements were carried out to
understand the electro-catalytic, electron-transport and charge-collection properties of the devices under investigation.

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Abstract Book |INST| Sharif University of Technology|

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