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http://dx.doi.org/10.9713/kcer.2019.57.3.392

Pore Size Control of a Highly Transparent Interfacial Layer via a Polymer-assisted Approach for Dye-sensitized Solar Cells  

Lee, Chang Soo (Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Yonsei University)
Lee, Jae Hun (Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Yonsei University)
Park, Min Su (Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Yonsei University)
Kim, Jong Hak (Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Yonsei University)
Publication Information
Korean Chemical Engineering Research / v.57, no.3, 2019 , pp. 392-399 More about this Journal
Abstract
A highly transparent interfacial layer (HTIL) to enhance the performance of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) was prepared via a polymer-assisted (PA) approach. Poly(vinyl chloride)-graft-poly(oxyethylene methacrylate) (PVC-g-POEM) was synthesized via atom-transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) and was used as a sacrificial template. The PVC-g-POEM graft copolymer induced partial coordination of a hydrophilic titanium isopropoxide (TTIP) sol-gel solution with the POEM domain, resulting in microphase separation, and in turn, the generation of mesopores upon calcination. These phenomena were confirmed using Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, UV-visible light transmittance spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. The DSSCs incorporating HTIL60/20 (consisting of a top layer with a pore size of 60 nm and a bottom layer with a pore size of 20 nm) exhibited the best overall conversion efficiency (6.36%) among the tested samples, which was 25.9% higher than that of a conventional blocking layer (BL). DSSC was further characterized using the Nyquist plot and incident-photon to electron conversion efficiency (IPCE) spectra.
Keywords
Dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC); Graft copolymer; Interfacial layer; Mesoporous $TiO_2$; Microphase separation;
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Times Cited By KSCI : 6  (Citation Analysis)
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