• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.14 no.1 s.60
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• pp.44-49
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• 2007

In the fabrication of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), carbon counter electrode has been tested for replacing the platinum counter electrode which has two drawbacks: limited surface area and high material cost. Poor mechanical stability of carbon layer due to weak bonding strength to electrically conductive TCO (transparent conducting oxide) glass substrate is a crucial barrier for practical application of carbon counter electrode. In the present study a carbon counter electrode with high conversion efficiency, comparable to Pt counter electrode, could be fabricated by adaption of a bonding layer between particulate carbon material and TCO substrate.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.192-197
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• 2016

A novel heteroleptic ruthenium(II) complex bearing a 4-picolinic acid unit as anchoring ligands (trans-dithiocyanato bis(4-picolinic acid)ruthenium(II) (trans-H1)) was synthesized and its chemical structure was identified by $^1H$-NMR, FT-IR and mass spectroscopy. The optical, thermal, electrochemical and dye adsorption properties of trans-H1 dye were investigated and compared with those of the gold standard ruthenium complex, Ru(4,4'-dicarboxy-2,2'-bipyridine)$_2cis(NCS)_2$ (N3). DSSCs based on trans-H1 dyes were examined under the illumination of AM 1.5 G, $100mWcm^{-2}$ and exhibited typical photovoltaic properties with an open-circuit voltage ($V_{OC}$) of 0.46 V, a short-circuit current ($J_{SC}$) of $4.10mA{\cdot}cm^{-2}$, a fill factor (FF) of 60.4%, and a conversion efficiency (PCE) of 1.14%.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.24 no.10
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• pp.565-571
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• 2014

Nitrogen-doped ZnO nanoparticle-carbon nanofiber composites were prepared using electrospinning. As the relative amounts of N-doped ZnO nanoparticles in the composites were controlled to levels of 3.4, 9.6, and 13.8 wt%, the morphological, structural, and chemical properties of the composites were characterized by means of field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). In particular, the carbon nanofiber composites containing 13.8 wt% N-doped ZnO nanoparticles exhibited superior catalytic properties, making them suitable for use as counter electrodes in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). This result can be attributed to the enhanced surface roughness of the composites, which offers sites for $I_3{^-}$ ion reductions and the formation of Zn3N2 phases that facilitate electron transfer. Therefore, DSSCs fabricated with 13.8 wt% N-doped ZnO nanoparticle-carbon nanofiber composites showed high current density ($16.3mA/cm^2$), high fill factor (57.8%), and excellent power-conversion efficiency (6.69%); at the same time, these DSSCs displayed power-conversion efficiency almost identical to that of DSSCs fabricated with a pure Pt counter electrode (6.57%).

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2011.10a
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• pp.11.2-11.2
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• 2011

A key technological issue related to the implementation of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) is the replacement of Pt at the counter electrodes with an inexpensive and electro-chemically stable alternative. Carbon based nanomaterials could be promising candidates, but in practice they exhibit inadequate device performance. Here, we report very thin graphene oxide (GO)/metal hybrid films as transparent counter electrodes for high-efficiency DSSCs. Transparent GO/Pt and GO/Au hybrid films showed cell efficiencies of 9.2 and 9.0%, respectively (improvements of 9.5 and 7.1% over conventional Pt counter electrodes). More interestingly, highly stable DSSCs with GO hybrid films from relatively inexpensive metals such as Cu and Ni have been demonstrated with efficiency values comparable to Pt counter electrodes. The results reported in this study should enable low-cost fabrication of DSSCs because it allows the use of relatively inexpensive metals such as Au, Cu, Ni, and Ag that could not be previously employed in DSSCs with iodide/tri-iodide electrolyte due to corrosion.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.90-96
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• 2013

We report here flexible dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) based on Ti-mesh electrodes that show good mechanical flexibility and electrical conductivity. $TiO_2$ nanotube arrays prepared by electrochemical anodizing Ti-mesh substrate were used as photoanode. A Pt-coated Ti-mesh substrate was used as counter electrode. The photoanodes were modified by coating a $TiO_2$ porous layer onto the $TiO_2$ nanotubes in order to increase the specific surface area. To increase the long term stability of the DSSCs, a gel type electrolyte was used instead of a conventional liquid type electrolyte. The DSSC based on $33.2{\mu}m$ long porous $TiO_2$ nanotubes exhibited a better energy conversion efficiency of ~2.33%, which was higher than that of the DSSCs based on non-porous $TiO_2$ nanotubes.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.57 no.3
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• pp.392-399
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• 2019

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.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.69-75
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• 2021

In this work, we consider the fabrication method and electrical characteristics of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), which use titanium (Ti) metal thin films to replace expensive fluorine tin oxide (FTO) electrodes. The thickness of the Ti thin film was changed by adjusting the deposition time of the Ti, and the surface resistance decreased as the thickness of the Ti thin film became thicker. The thickness of the Ti thin film was shown to be similar to the surface resistance of the FTO thin film at approximately 190nm and the DSSC with a thickness of approximately 250nm showed the highest energy conversion efficiency of 4.24%. Furthermore, the possibility of commercialization was confirmed by fabricating and evaluating the DSSC module.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.218-227
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• 2016

The light harvesting efficiency is counted as an important factor in the power conversion efficiency of DSSCs. There are two measures to improve this parameter, including enhancing the dye-loading capacity and increasing the light trapping in the photoanode structure. In this paper, these tasks are addressed by introducing a macro-porous silicon (PSi) substrate as photoanode. The effects of the novel photoanode structure on the DSSC performance have been investigated by using energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, photocurrent-voltage, UV-visible spectroscopy, reflectance spectroscopy, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurements. The results indicated that bigger porosity percentage of the PSi structure improved the both anti-reflective/light-trapping and dye-loading capacity properties. PSi based DSSCs own higher power conversion efficiency due to its remarkable higher photocurrent, open circuit voltage, and fill factor. Percent porosity of 64%, PSi(III), resulted in nearly 50 percent increment in power conversion efficiency compared with conventional DSSC. This paper showed that PSi can be a good candidate for the improvement of light harvesting efficiency in DSSCs. Furthermore, this study can be considered a valuable reference for more investigations in the design of multifunctional devices which will profit from integrated on-chip solar power.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.227-233
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• 2009

Recently, dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC), one of the solar cells, has been widely investigated. Studies on DSSCs can be classified into 4 fields such as $TiO_2$ nanocrystalline materials, dyes, electrolytes and conductive plate. In this work, $TiO_2$ nanoparticles for dye adsorption were synthesized, and added into the photo-electrode paste with different phosphor types and contents. Then, the influence of phosphor additives on the conversion efficiency of DSSCs was investigated. It was found that the maximum conversion efficiency was 8.81% when 0.5% of YAG phospher having the particle size of 400 nm was used.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.119.2-119.2
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• 2011

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) are currently attracting wide spread academic and commercial interest for the conversion of sunlight into electricity because of their easy manufacturing process and high efficiency. The solar energy conversion efficiencies of DSSC are strongly dependent on dye molecules adsorbed on the TiO2 surface which used for photosensitization of sun light, since an excited state of dye could inject an electron into the conduction band of semiconductor. We have developed novel organic dyes which have phenothiazine moieties as an electron donor in their charge-transfer chromophore for application of DSSCs. We had synthesized a series of phenothiazine derivatives which have different wave length absorbing chromophore in the molecule with high molar extinction coefficient. The photovoltaic performance of DSSC composed of organic chromophores with broad wavelength absorption property were measured and evaluated by comparison with that of pristine ruthenium dye.