• 한국전기전자재료학회논문지
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• 제26권3호
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• pp.198-203
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• 2013

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) based on titanium dioxide ($TiO_2$) have been extensively studied because of their promising low-cost alternatives to conventional semiconductor based solar cells. DSSCs consist of molecular dye at the interface between a liquid electrolyte and a mesoporous wide-bandgap semiconductor oxide. Most efforts for high conversion efficiencies have focused on dye and liquid electrolytes. However, interface engineering between dye and electrode is also important to reduce recombination and improve efficiency. In this work, for interface engineering, we deposited semiconducting ferroelectric $BiFeO_3$ with bandgap of 2.8 eV on $TiO_2$ nanoparticles and nanotubes. Photovoltaic properties of DSSCs were characterized as a function of thickness of $BiFeO_3$. We showed that ferroelectric $BiFeO_3$-coated $TiO_2$ electrodes enable to increase overall efficiency of DSSCs, which was associated with efficient electron transport due to internal electric field originating from electric polarization. It was suggested that engineering the dye-$TiO_2$ interface using ferroelectric materials as inorganic modifiers can be key parameter for enhanced photovoltaic performance of the cell.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국신재생에너지학회 2011년도 추계학술대회 초록집
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• pp.53.2-53.2
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• 2011

Dye-sensitized solar cells(DSSCs) have been recognized as an alternative to the conventional p-n junction solar cells because of their simple fabrication process, low production cost, and transparency. A typical DSSC consists of a transparent conductive oxide (TCO) electrode, a dye-sensitized oxide semiconductor nanoparticle layer, liquid redox electrolyte, and a Pt-counter electrode. In dye-sensitized solar cells, charge recombination processes at interfaces between coducting glass, $TiO_2$, dye, and electrolyte play an important role in limiting the photon-to-electron conversion efficiency. A layer of ZTO thin film less than ~200nm in thickness, as a blocking layer, was deposited by DC magnetron sputtering method directly onto the anode electrode to be isolated from the electrolyte in dye-sensitized solar cells(DSCs). This is to prevent the electrons from back-transferring from the electrode to the electrolyte ($I^-/I_3^-$). The presented DSCs were fabricated with working electrode of Ga-doped ZnO glass coated with blocking ZTO layer, dye-attached nanoporous $TiO_2$ layer, gel electrolyte and counter electrode of Pt-deposited GZO glass. The effects of blocking layer were studied with respect to impedance and conversion efficiency of the cells.

• 한국세라믹학회지
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• 제52권5호
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• pp.380-383
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• 2015

We prepared the $TiO_2$ layer with 0 ~ 4 wt% of polystyrene (PS) beads having a radius of 250 nm to increase the dye adsorption and energy conversion efficiency (ECE) of a dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC). Then, we fabricated DSSCs using $0.45cm^2$ active area. FE-SEM was used to characterize the microstructure consisting of $TiO_2$ layer and PS beads. UV-VIS-NIR was used to determine the optical absorbance of working electrodes (WEs). Solar simulator and potentiostat were used to determine the photovoltaic properties. We observed that pores having a radius of 250 nm were formed with the density of $0.15ea/{\mu}m^2$ in $TiO_2$ layers after conducting the sintering process. The absorbance in visible light regime was found to increase with the increase in the amount of PS beads. The ECE increased from 4.66% to 5.25% when the amount of PS beads was increased from 0 to 4 wt%. This is because the pores of PS beads increased the adsorption of dye. Our results indicate that the ECE of the DSSCs can be enhanced by the addition of an appropriate amount of PS beads into $TiO_2$ layers.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국신재생에너지학회 2007년도 춘계학술대회
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• pp.309-312
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• 2007

Sputter deposition followed by surface treatment was studied using reactive RF plasma as a method for preparing titanium oxide($TiO_{2}$) films on indium tin oxide(ITO) coated glass substrate for dye-sensitized solar cells(DSSCs). Anatase structure $TiO_{2}$ films deposited by reactive RF magnetron sputtering under the conditions of $Ar/O_{2}$(5%) mixtures, RF power of 600W and substrate temperature of $400^{\circ}C$ were surface-treated by inductive coupled plasma(ICP) with $Ar/O_{2}$ mixtures at substrate temperature of $400^{\circ}C$, and thus the films were applied to the DSSCs, The $TiO_{2}$ Films made on these exhibited the BET specific surface area of 95, the pore volume of $0.3cm^{2}$ and the TEM particle size of ${\sim}25$ nm. The DSSCs made of this $TiO_{2}$ material exhibited an energy conversion efficiency of about 2.25% at $100mW/cm^{2}$ light intensity.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• 제29권2호
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• pp.463-466
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• 2008

We report a method to increase the surface area of the titania films used as the anodes of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) by applying additional titania-coating. The modification was achieved by spin-coating a coating solution that contained a surfactant with a titania source onto the titania electrodes, followed by calcination. Previous similar attempts without a surfactant all reported decreased surface areas. We fabricated DSSCs by using the modified titania films as the anode and measured their performances. The increased surface area increased the amount of adsorbed dyes, which resulted in increased current densities. At the same time, the titania-coating increased both the open-circuit voltage and the current density by reducing the charge-recombination rates of the injected electrons, similar to the results of literatures. Therefore, our method shows an additional mechanism to increase the current density of DSSCs in addition to the other mechanisms of surface modifications with titania-coatings.

• 공업화학
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• 제20권2호
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• pp.227-233
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• 2009

최근 태양전지에 대한 관심이 급증하면서 염료감응형 태양전지(Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell, DSSC)에 관한 연구가 활발히 진행되고 있다. 염료감응형 태양전지에 관한 연구는 크게 $TiO_2$ 나노 결정 소재, 염료, 전해질 및 전도성 기판 등 4가지 분야로 나눌 수 있다. 본 연구에서는 염료를 흡착할 수 있는 나노결정성 $TiO_2$를 합성한 후, 이를 광전극용 페이스트(paste)에 다양한 형광물질(phosphor)의 종류 및 함량을 조절하여 첨가함으로써 염료감응형 태양전지의 효율에 미치는 영향을 조사하였다. 실험결과 400 nm 입자크기의 YAG계 형광체 0.5%가 첨가된 페이스트를 사용할 경우, 에너지 변환효율이 최대 8.31%에 도달함을 확인할 수 있었다.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국신재생에너지학회 2010년도 춘계학술대회 초록집
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• pp.64.2-64.2
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• 2010

In order to improve the overall power conversion efficiency in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), it is very important to secure the sufficient surface area of photocatalytic nanoparticles layer for absorbing dye molecules. It is because increasing the amount of dye absorbed generally results in increasing the amount of light harvesting. In this work, we proposed a new method for increasing the specific surface area of photocatalytic titanium oxide ($TiO_2$) nanoparticles by using an inorganic templating method. Salt-$TiO_2$ composite nanoparticles were synthesized in this approach by spray pyrolyzing both the titanium butoxide and sodium chloride solution. After aqueous removal of salt from salt-$TiO_2$ composite nanoparticles, mesoporous $TiO_2$ nanoparticles with pore size of 2~50 nm were formed and then the specific surface area of resulting porous $TiO_2$ nanoparticle was measured by Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) method. Generally, commercially available P-25 with the average primary size of ~25 nm $TiO_2$ nanoparticles was used as an active layer for dye-sensitized solarcells, and the specific surface area of P-25 was found to be ~50 $m^2/g$. On the other hand, the specific surface area of mesoporous $TiO_2$ nanoparticles prepared in this approach was found to be ~286 $m^2/g$, which is 5 times higher than that of P-25. The increased specific surface area of $TiO_2$ nanoparticles will absorb relatively more dye molecules, which can increase the short curcuit current (Jsc) in DSSCs. The influence of nanoporous structures of $TiO_2$ on the performance of DSSCs will be discussed in terms of the amount of dye molecules absorbed, the fill factor, the short circuit current, and the power conversion efficiency.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• 제2권2호
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• pp.68-75
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• 2011

In this review, we have investigated the effect of $TiO_2$-based blocking layers (t-BLs), deposited on a transparent conductive oxide (TCO)-coated glass substrate, on the photovoltaic performance of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The t-BL was deposited using spin-coating or sputtering technique, and its thicknesses were varied to study the influence of the thin $TiO_2$ layer in between transparent conducting glass and nanocrystalline $TiO_2$ (nc-$TiO_2$). The DSSC with the t-BL showed the improved adhesion and the suppressed charge recombination at a TCO glass substrate than those without the t-BL, which led to the higher conversion efficiency.

• 한국진공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국진공학회 2014년도 제46회 동계 정기학술대회 초록집
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• pp.445.1-445.1
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• 2014

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have been widely investigated as a next-generation solar cell because of their simple structure and low manufacturing cost. The $TiO_2$ film with thickness of $8{\sim}10{\mu}m$, which consists of nanoparticles, acts as both a scaffold with a high surface-to-volume ratio for the dye loading and a pathway to remove the electrons. However, charge carriers have to move across many particle boundaries by a hopping mechanism. So, one dimensional nanostructures such as nanotubes, nanorods and nanowires should improve charge carrier transportation by providing a facile direct electron pathway and lowering the diffusion resistance. However, the efficiencies of DSSCs using one dimensional nanostructures are less than the $TiO_2$ nanoparticle-based DSSCs. In this work, the patterned $TiO_2$ film with thickness of $3{\mu}m$ was deposited using photolithography process to decrease of electron pathway and increase of surface area and transmittance of $TiO_2$ films. Properties of the patterned $TiO_2$ films were investigated by various analysis method such as X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and UV-visible spectrophotometer.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• 제34권9호
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• pp.2583-2588
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• 2013

A new type of solid and gel-state ionics based on siloxane pyridinium iodides was synthesized and used as electrolytes in dye-sensitized solar cells. The resulting electrolytes were characterized by $^1H$ NMR spectroscopy, TGA and diffusion coefficient. The synthesized siloxane pyridinium iodide electrolytes have characteristics of different chain length of siloxane moieties. The ion conductivities were given 2.7-3.2 S/cm. Among the three SiDPIs based electrolytes, DSSC employing the SiDPI2 gives an open circuit voltage of 0.704 V, a short-circuit current of 15.85 $mA/cm^2$ and conversion efficiency of 6.8% under light intensity of 100 $mW/cm^2$. In addition, the performance of the DSSCs showed relatively reasonable compared with the propylpyridinium iodide (PPI) electrolyte.