Enhancement in the efficiency of

Solar Cells
Submitted By: Guided By:
Srinath Poduval 06BCH097 Prof. (Dr.) J ayesh P. Ruparelia
Swapnil Agarwal 06BCH098 Assistant Professor
Index
Introduction
Dye Solar Cells (DSC)
Materials & Methods
Results
References
Introduction
Dye Solar Cells
Low cost thin film solar cells
Invented by Michael Grtzel in 1991
Mechanically robust and can be made on
flexible sheets
Commercialization just started with three
major companies: DyeSol, Austraila; Solaronix,
France; ECIC, Taiwan.
Construction & Working:
Advantages:
Works well under diffused sunlight, less sensitive
to angle of incidence.
Can be made fully transparent, can have a lot of
aesthetic applications.
Bifacial, absorbs light from both faces, can be
inverted.
Manufacturing costs much cheaper than the
commercially available PV silicon cells.
Also works at high temperature, owing to the thin
conducting film that radiates internal heat.
Materials & Methods:
DSCs four major components:
1. Conducting glass
2. TiO
2
layer
3. Dye
4. Electrolyte
5. Counter electrode
Building of DSC:
Conducting glass:
Commercially available as ITO (Indium Tin
oxide glass) used normally in LCD screens.
Glass with a resistance of at least 30/sq.cm is
required.
Glass has to be highly transparent.
A normal 160 * 80 mm ITO glass (4mm thick)
costs around $150 (Courtesy: Dyesol Inc.)
Lab preparation of conducting glass
Stannic Chloride is obtained and dissolved in
ethanol(40%w/w) solution (5gmin5ml of methanol)
It is sprayed upon theglass surface with the help of a
mister.
The glass is then kept in the muffle furnace and is
heatedupto400-500Cfor about 15-20min
Sn
4+
getsreducedtoSn
2+
, formingamixlayer of SnO
2
&
SnO
4
, whichareresponsiblefor conductivity
Conducting glass by Thermal Evaporation @
IPR, Gandhinagar
Contd..
Thermal Evaporation facility @ FCPTI, IPR, Gandhinagar
Contd..
Contd..
Procedure to build a DSC
(Materials Required)
2 transparent conductive glass slides (We used glass slides prepared by
Thermal Evaporation technique).
Sticky tape
Ruler and a small knife.
Isopropyl alcohol .
Titanium dioxide (Company: Finar 99.0% pure)
Mortar with pistil
Acetic Acid
Triton X-100 (Surfactant)
Muffle furnace (at least 450C)
Potassium Iodide crystals
Dye (we used Santalin)
Spirit lamp
Fire tongs
Glass rod
Step by Step process:
Check for conducting side
Preparation of glass slide
TiO
2
Coating
Contd..
Heating the coated glass
Preparing the Dye Solution
Coating Dye over TiO
2
Preparation of Counter electrode
Contd..
Measuring the open-circuit Voltage
Contd..
Results
Conducting glass Analysis
SEM Analysis
XRD Analysis
2 Theta/ (Scan axis: 2:1 sym.)
Intensity/
cps
XRD pattern reveal that films contain SnO and SnO
2
both phases with
SnO peaks with higher intesities and preferred orientaions.
Tr ansmission Spect r a for SnO2 films deposited by ther mal
evapor ation and Plasma assisted ther mal evapor ation
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
350 415 480 545 610 675 740 805 870 935 1000
Wavelength(nm)
T
r
a
n
s
m
i
t
t
a
n
c
e
250 C
300 C
250 C with RF
300 C with RF
Transmission Spectra
Transmission spectra of films show that as the substrate
temperature increases transparency of the films increases. Also
spectra of plasma assisted films are lying somewhat above the
spectra of thermally grown
Films.
Open Circuit Voltage
S. No. Resistivity of Conducting
glass
Illumination
(W/m
2
)
Voltage(m
V)
1. 89.59 cm 120(Sunlight) 989
2. 129.8 cm 120(Sunlight) 692
3. 127 cm 120(Sunlight) 468
4. 146 cm 250(Solar Lamp) 19
References
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2
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Contd
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http://www.dyesol.com/index.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/dye_sentisized_solar_cell
http://www.solarprint.ie
http://www.ecic.com/dssc
http://solarcellsinfo.com/blog/archives/category/dye-sensitized-polymer-organic-solar-cells