Influence of Coadsorbent on the Adsorption of N719 on the Surface of TiO2 Films and its Application in Dye Sensitized Solar Cells

  • Dr Fantai Kong, Division of Solar Energy Materials and Engineering, Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
  • Songyuan Dai, Division of Solar Energy Materials and Engineering, Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
  • Prof Kongjia Wang, Division of Solar Energy Materials and Engineering, Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
  • Dr Jie Li, Division of Solar Energy Materials and Engineering, Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
  • Prof Yifeng Sui, Division of Solar Energy Materials and Engineering, Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
  • Dr Xiaqin Fang, Division of Solar Energy Materials and Engineering, Institute of Plasma Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

    • Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSC) have attracted wide-spread academic and commercial interests for their potential low cost, simple assemble technology and high efficiency. Up to now, the efficiency in the laboratory for DSC was more than 11%. 200 m2 DSC showcase founded by STI Company in Australia, showed us the future of industrialization for DSC. In the industrialization process of DSC, how to decrease the cost of production is a problem to be solved. In this article, we introduced several organic carboxylic acids as the coadsorbent for N719 dye on the surface of TiO2 films. The influence of coadsorbent on the adsorption of N719 on the surface of TiO2 films and its application in dye-sensitized solar cells were studied by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and I-V characterization. It was found that steric acid is a good coadsorbent for N719 on the surface of TiO2 films, which can save the amount of expensive N719 dye in DSC and increase the efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells. The proper concentration of coadsorbent is 0.5 mmol/L for N719 dye on TiO2 surface. Proper concentration of steric acid can remove the weakly adsorbed NCS group on the surface of TiO2 surface, which is benefit for the electron transfer from excited dye into conduction band of the semiconductor.