Study of Electro-Deposited Pt/Ni/ITO Cathode for the Efficient Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell

  • Seok Joo Doh, Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science & Technology (DGIST), Korea
  • Mr Cham Kim, Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science & Technology (DGIST), Korea
  • Mr Kiseob Hwang, Keimyung University, Korea
  • Dr Se Geun Lee, Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science & Technology (DGIST), Korea
  • Mr Sung Jun Lee, Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science & Technology (DGIST), Korea
  • Dr Hoyoung Kim, Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science & Technology (DGIST), Korea

    • We studied electro-deposited Pt/Ni/ITO cathode for efficient dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC). First, we deposited metal Ni as an adhesion layer by applying electric potential to ITO substrate in the electroplating solution. Then, we deposited metal Pt on the metal Ni layer by electroplating. We found that the island type metal Pt (10 nm to 220 nm) and layer type metal Ni were deposited on the ITO substrate. The adhesion characteristics were dependent on the preparation condition of the Ni layer and the optimization were proceeded to enhance the adhesion ability between layers. As a result, we found that the short circuit current, fill factor and efficiency of DSSCs with the electro-deposited Pt/Ni/ITO cathode were much larger than those of DSSCs with thermally formed Pt cathode. The larger cell efficiency with the Pt/Ni/ITO cathode was attributed to lower charge transfer resistance and sheet resistance. We suggest that the electro-deposited Pt/Ni/ITO cathode should be suitable for the efficient DSSCs which are prepared at low temperature.