The effect of electrolyte filling method on the performance of dye-sensitized solar cells
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© 2012 Elsevier BV. This is the post print version of the following article: Miettunen, Kati & Barnes, Piers R.F. & Li, Xiaoe & Law, ChunHung & O’Regan, Brian C.. 2012. The effect of electrolyte filling method on the performance of dye-sensitized solar cells. Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry. Volume 677-680. 41-49. ISSN 1572-6657 (printed). DOI: 10.1016/j.jelechem.2012.04.013., which has been published in final form at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1572665712001440
This post-print is published with permission from Elsevier under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
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School of Science |
A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä
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Date
2012
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Language
en
Pages
41-49
Series
Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry, Volume 677-680
Abstract
The effect of electrolyte filling method on the performance of the dye-sensitized solar cells is investigated with the segmented cell method, a recent technique which is very simple but effective as it can be used to examine all the photovoltaic characteristics. The electrolyte filling techniques compared were single injection, which is typically used in small laboratory cells, and pumping the electrolyte through the cell several times, which is often used for larger cells and modules. Significant photovoltage and photocurrent variations occur with the repeated pumping of the electrolyte in the cell preparation. Transient and charge extraction measurements confirmed that the differences in open circuit voltage were due to the shifts of the TiO2 conduction band and time correlated single photon counting confirmed that the reduction of short circuit current was largely due to reduced electron injection correlated with the increasing conduction band edge in the studied cases. This was interpreted as an effect of molecular filtering by the TiO2 causing an accumulation of electrolyte additives (4-tert-butylpyridine and benzimidazole) near the electrolyte filling hole, the concentration of which increased with repeated pumping of the electrolyte. Interestingly, spatial variations were seen not only in the relative TiO2 conduction band energy but also in the density of trap states. In this contribution it is demonstrated how the changes in the conduction band can be separated from the changes in the density of trap states which is an essential for the correct interpretation of the data.Description
Keywords
electrolyte filling, spatial distribution
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Citation
Miettunen, Kati & Barnes, Piers R.F. & Li, Xiaoe & Law, ChunHung & O’Regan, Brian C.. 2012. The effect of electrolyte filling method on the performance of dye-sensitized solar cells. Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry. Volume 677-680. 41-49. ISSN 1572-6657 (printed). DOI: 10.1016/j.jelechem.2012.04.013.