Enhancing the Efficiency of PMMA-Based Quasi-Solid Electrolyte Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells by Ozone Treatment of TiO₂ Thin Films

Abstract

　A quasi-solid electrolyte dye-sensitized solar cell (QSDSSC) was fabricated, which used an environment-friendly organic MK2 dye. The quasi-solid electrolyte was fabricated based on I^-/I₃^- redox couple and polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) polymer. Ozone treatment technique has been utilized to clean and improve the hydrophilicity of TiO₂ thin films, as a result, its dye-adsorption capacity was enhanced. Experimental results with a solar simulator showed that 40 % improvement of the conversion efficiency was obtained with the QSDSSCs fabricated with the photoanodes undergone the ozone treatment compared with the QSDSSCs fabricated with the photoanodes without the ozone treatment. Furthermore, we also conducted a stability test on the QSDSSCs fabricated with the ozone-treated photoanodes to study the stability of the organic MK2 dye and the PMMA-based gel electrolyte.