Preliminary Study On The Optimization Of Preparative Condition For The Anode Of Narual Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell

Dye sensitized nanocrystalline solar cell (DSSC) is a new type of photoelectric chemical solar cell with simple preparation procedure, low cost, stable photo-to-electric performance and friendly environment action, which make it a alternative of photo-to-electric devices. Comparing to the silicon solar cell the DSSC has lower photo-to-electric efficiency. So to improve the photo-to-electric efficiency of DSSC has an important significance for the research of DSSC. The preparative conditions of anode for TiO₂ dye-sensitized solar cell and choosing of dye have a considerable influence on improvement of the photo-to-electric efficiency of DSSC.At present ruthenium polypyridyl complex as dye are used for a majority of DSSC, whereas natural dye has great investigative value and applied potential because of the simple preparation technique, widely available and low cheap cost. In many works of DSSC, the similarity of preparative conditions of TiO₂ anode for both natural dye and man-made dye were reported, but the difference of the preparative conditions between them has not discussed yet.In this paper, dye-sensitized solar cell assembled with the cathode of conductive glass coated with carbon, an anode of TiO₂ porous film on a conductive glass substrate anchored, natural dyes extracted from leaves of Evergreen Tree, and an electrolyte of iodide/triildide. To explore the optimization of preparative conditions of anode for TiO₂ DSSC by changing the preparative conditions, namely, the amount of acetylacetone and octylphenylether, sintered temperature, grinding time and keeping temperature. The results indicated the experimental unit of DSSC reached maximum open-circuit voltage and short-circuit under the conditions of acetylacetone of 0.1ml, octylphenylether polyethylene of 0.1ml, sintered at 500°C for 30 min and grinding continuously for 60 min.The difference of preparative conditions of anode for TiO₂ between natural dye and man-made dye DSSC was found out that the sintered temperature in the natural dye sensitized solar cell is 500% and in the man-made dye solar cell is 450%.Furthermore the photoelectric performances of the dye-sensitized solar cell unit were compared among three natural dyes extracted from leaves of Evergreen Tree, Cabbage and Green Tea. The result showed that the dye extracted from of green tea performed the best photosensitized effect not only due to the chemisorption between the basis of green tea and the surface of TiO₂ porous film, but also the hydroxyl group of green tea bound with the surface of TiO₂ porous film.