IMPROVING THE EFFICIENCY OF TITANIUM DIOXIDE BASED DYE SENSITIZED SOLAR CELL (DSSC) USING SILVER SURFACE COUNTER ELECTRODE

Abstract

The high cost of processing crystalline silicon for solar cell has shifted research focus to cheaper materials for solar cell production. Although a variety of advanced approaches to solar cell are being investigated, dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) is expected to offer one of the lowest manufacturing costs in the future because of its simplicity and use of cheap materials. However, the major challenge being faced in DSSC technology is its low efficiency. In an effort to improve the performance of DSSC, this work focused on the use of a silver surface glass for the counter electrode instead of the transparent glass which is normally used. Two solar cells were produced based on Gratzel method. In the first one, both the working electrode and the counter electrode were made of transparent conductive glass substrate. In the second cell, the titanium dioxide was coated on a transparent conductive glass electrode substrate to form the working electrode while a silver surface glass was used for the counter electrode. Teak extract was used as the organic dye sensitizer and potassium iodate as the electrolyte. The solar cell was then illuminated and tested. The results of the performance evaluations carried out show that the cell with silver surface counter electrode has an improved efficiency of about 400%. The result of the study therefore shows that the conductivity of the counter electrode material has effect on the performance of DSSC.