Preparation And Properties Of Photo - Anode And Counter Electrode For Dye - Sensitized Solar Cells

The photo-anode in the dye-sensitized solar cell （DSSC） plays an important role notonly in absorbing dye molecules, but also in collecting and transmitting electrons. Thereare a lot of surface states in the traditional TiO₂which constitute the trap that bounds thediffusion of the light-generated electrons. The counter electrode serves to transferelectrons from external circuit to the redox electrolyte, and catalyzes the reduction oftriiodide ions. As the conventional counter electrode of the DSSC, platinum is rare metalwhich makes the cost of the DSSC much higher. Therefore, based on the TiO₂and Pt, itis necessary to find photo-anode and counter electrode with high-performance andlow-cost for DSSC.In this dissertation, ZnO porous plate film is prepared by cathodic eletrodepositon forthe application in DSSC, which shows good photoelectric performance. Influence of thedifferent experimental conditions on the structural and morphological of the ZnO filmand the performance of DSSC are studied. Then the two-step synthesis processesincluding two-step eletrodeposition and one step hydrothermal after one stepeletrodeposition are used to prepare the ZnO film. Compared to the ZnO film preparedby one-step synthesis processes, the DSSC with two-step synthesized ZnO film preparedby two-step process shows the good performance, the DSSC with the two-stepeletodepositon synthesized ZnO film shows the higher incident photo-electronconcersion efficiency19.5%and the higher photoelectric conversion efficiency1.35%,especially.The ethanol catalytic combustion method is used to synthesize carbon nanoparticlenet structure film with different nitrate as catalyst precursor. The carbon nanoparticlesfilm is used as the counter electrode of DSSC and the photoelectric conversion efficiencyis4.39%. At the same time, the effect of the different conditions on the carbonnanoparticle net structure film and the performance of DSSC are investigated. Based onthe above research, the ferrocene is used as catalyst, the composite electrode which madeup of amorphous carbon, carbon nanotube and iron nanoparticle is prepared. DSSC usingthe composite electrode as counter electrode shows the conversion efficiency of4.76%which is comparable with the conventional Pt electrode.The onion-like graphitic nanosphere film is obtained from the combustion of candles.When used as the counter electrode of DSSC, the conversion efficiency can reach up 5.71%. At the same time, the effect of the different conditions on the morphological ofonion-like graphitic nanosphere film and the performance of DSSC are studied. Based onthe above research, the ferrocene is used as catalyst, the C/Fe composite electrode isobtained using the candle self-made which applied to DSSC, the conversion efficiency is5.17%. The C/Fe composite electrode has not been reported yet. The efficiency of DSSCbased on the onion-like graphitic nanosphere electrode and C/Fe composite electrode isboth higher than the conventional Pt electrode.This research can also be used for quantum dot sensitization solar cell.