Low-Temperature Chemical Sintered TiO2 Photoanodes Based on a Binary Liquid Mixture for Flexible Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Md Mahbubur Rahman, Hyeong Cheol Kang, Kicheon Yoo, Jae Joon Lee

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

A chemically sintered and binder-free paste of TiO2 nanoparticles (NPs) was prepared using a binary-liquid mixture of 1-octanol and CCl4. The 1:1 (v/v) complex of CCl4 and 1-octanol easily interacted chemically with the TiO2 NPs and induced the formation of a highly viscous paste. The as-prepared binary-liquid paste (PBL)-based TiO2 film exhibited the complete removal of the binary-liquid and residuals with the subsequent low-temperature sintering (~150ºC) and UV-O3 treatment. This facilitated the fabrication of TiO2 photoanodes for flexible dye-sensitized solar cells (f-DSSCs). For comparison pur-poses, pure 1-octanol-based TiO2 paste (PO) with moderate viscosity was prepared. The PBL-based TiO2 film exhibited strong adhesion and high mechanical stability with the conducting oxide coated glass and plastic substrates compared to the PO-based film. The corresponding low-temperature sintered PBL-based f-DSSC showed a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 3.5%, while it was 2.0% for PO-based f-DSSC. The PBL-based low-and high-temperature (500ºC) sintered glass-based rigid DSSCs exhibited the PCE of 6.0 and 6.3%, respectively, while this value was 7.1% for a 500ºC sintered rigid DSSC based on a commercial (or conventional) paste.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)453-461
Number of pages9
JournalJournal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
Volume13
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 2022

Keywords

  • 1-Octanol
  • Binder-free TiO paste
  • Carbon tetrachloride
  • Dye-sensitized solar cells
  • High viscosity
  • Low-tem-perature
  • Raoult’s law

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