Fabrication Of Anode Films For Dye-sensitized Solar Cells And Their Properties

Dye-sensitized solar cell is a new type of solar cell whose working principle is completely different from the traditional silicon solar cells. This kind of solar cell has been developed as one of the promising alternatives to the traditional silicon solar cells in virtue of its low manufacturing cost and impressive photovoltaic performance. Preparation of anode films is one of the most impotant factor for the photovoltaic performance of dye-sensitized solar cell which is dramatically determined by the quality of semiconductor films. Therefore, the semiconductor film possessing high optical performance is necessary and its preparation and reserch have important theoretical significance and application value for the development of dye-sensitized solar cells.In this paper, aiming at solving the problem that exists in the preparation and structure of anode film of dye-sensitized solar cell, we prepare a kind of anode film with spinodal phase separation structure by the polymer-induced phase separation method. The characteristics of the anode film are:(1) a unique spinodal phase separation structure which owns a high specific surface area is conducive to the adsorption of dye;(2) a continuous skeleton which can reduce the barriers at the grain boundaries can improve the photoelectric conversion efficiency of the cell;(3) polymerization induced phase separation method has the merits of low cost, simple operation, small impact to environmental, high repeat rate fitting to the fabrication of the anode film. The influence of various reaction conditions on the morphology of the the film with the structure described above was researched, and the relationship between the reaction conditions and the structure of film was estalished initially. The formation mechanism of the spinodal phase separation structure was explored through the study of the structure’s formation process. The driving force for the formation of the continuous skeleton structure is concluded to be the mismatch of stress on the film surface during its drying process. Two different photomonors were used to prepare film together and a multi-structured film having both the spinodal phase separation structure and the porous structure was obtained. Heat treatment temperature, time and the times of dip-coating have large impact on the photocatalytic properties of TiO2films. The film prepared by the heat treatment of500°C for10min and the film with seven times of dip-coating show excellent photocatalytic properties for degrading the methylene blue. Used the films prepared before as photoanode of dye-sensiized solar cell, we found that increasing of the film thickness can enlarge the surface area, repair the deficiencies existed in the film and make the TiO2skeleton of spinodal phase separation structure connected more closely which are favorable to photovoltaic performance of the cell. The improvement of the electron transfer efficiency attribute to the spinodal phase separation structure and the increase of the dye adsorption benefit from the porous structure make the multi-structure film possess high photovoltaic performance eventually.