Study On Large Area Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Dye-sensitized solar cell （DSC） was invented about20years ago, whichis a long enough history to make it a relatively mature technology. DSC hasbeen regarded as one kind of highly competitive new generation solar cells forits low price, simple fabrication and excellent efficiency over10%. However,there are still many crucial bottlenecks limiting the industrialization processof DSC, such as efficiency attenuation and poor long-term stability.Fabrication of large area （area>1cm2） DSC is the key issue of the indu-strialization process. Design and fabrication of DSC module is the core tech-nology of making large area DSCs. Currently the interconnection modes ofDSC modules include monolithic, parallel, W-type series and Z-type seriesconnection. For these two different connection modes, the anodes arescreen-printed using paste containing nano-TiO₂synthesized from hydro-thermal reaction. Optimized anode thicknesses, surface treatment by aqueousTiCl4solution and shortening of dye-adsorbing time in warm dye solution arediscussed. By applying these conclusions, large-scale parallel and W-type se-ries connection modules are fabricated. The performances of differentlyshaped elementary cells are tested and the optimized design is obtained.Modeling and simulation are meaningful to the design of DSC module.After building a proper model and fitting experimental data to it, every para-meter used in the model could be obtained. These parameters are then appliedto the simulation of models under different conditions. Optimized module de-signs for each module type could be obtained through comparing calculatedperformances of differently designed modules.