Solar Energy, Vol.199, 447-452, 2020
Electrodeposited MoS2 counter electrode for flexible dye sensitized solar cell module with ionic liquid assisted photoelectrode
Dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) offers great advantages includes low cost materials, economic fabrication, suitable for low-light conversion, flexibility option, color design possibilities, etc. In the present study, a semitransparent, molybdenum disulphide (MoS2) flexible counter electrode (CE) is realized through electrodeposition method. Low temperature processed TiO2 solution is used for photoelectrode (PE) preparation. Conductive ionic liquid (BVImI + LiI) is used to modify the surface of photoelectrode for alteration of conduction band level of PE, towards enriched electron injection rate into TiO2. Flexible dye-sensitized solar cell (f-DSSC) fabricated by sandwich the photoelectrode and counter electrodes, and an ionic liquid electrolyte is injected. The surface modified photoelectrode (SM-PE) assisted test cell (0.16 cm(2) active area) witnessed an enhanced current density value 12.46 mA/cm(2) and power conversion efficiency (PCE) 4.84% is higher than the normal PE based f-DSSC (11.56 mA/cm(2) and 4.35%). For comparison, platinum-based f-DSSC with SM-PE is fabricated, is attained 6.08% of PCE. The f-DSSC sub-module with MoS2-CE gave 4.21% of PCE, the results are presented.
Keywords:Flexible DSSC;MoS2 counter electrode;Imidazolium iodide;Surface modification of PE;Semi-transparent flexible DSSC module