TITLE:
Electrophoretic Deposition of Titanium Oxide Nanoparticle Films for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell Applications
AUTHORS:
Jason Bandy, Qifeng Zhang, Guozhong Cao
KEYWORDS:
Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells, Electrophoretic Deposition, TiO2 Nanoparticles
JOURNAL NAME:
Materials Sciences and Applications,
Vol.2 No.10,
October
17,
2011
ABSTRACT: Films of titanium oxide nanocrystalline particles (P25) were deposited using an electrophoretic deposition. The film’s characteristics were tuned for applications in dye-sensitized solar cells. Electrophoretic deposition allows control of film characteristics such as porosity and thickness by changing deposition parameters, such as the electric field and deposition time. To increase the efficiency of the dye-sensitized solar cells with films created using electrophoretic deposition, the problem of an electrolyte contamination in the film, which occurred during deposition, was addressed. With the proper chemical post treatment, efficiency of 2.93% with fill factor of 0.55 was obtained when the films were annealed at 450℃. A low annealing temperature of 150℃ resulted in efficiencys of 1.99% with fill factor of 0.68. When the P25 was replaced by hydrothermally fabricated titanium oxide nanocrystalline particles, efficiency of 4.91% with fill factor of 0.55 was obtained.