* Corresponding author. +1 540 231 1776; pitchu@vt.

edu 1 Copyright ASME 2010

ANALYSIS AND DESIGN OF DYE SENSITIZED SOLAR CELLS
Karthik Nithyanandam and Ranga Pitchumani*
Advanced Materials and Technologies Laboratory
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, Virginia 24061-0238


ABSTRACT
Dye sensitized solar cells (DSC) are an attractive alternative to
the conventional photovoltaic cell because of their low cost
electricity production from solar radiation. The advantages of
a DSC include the ability to generate power without emitting
pollutants and requiring no fuel. While modeling of the physi-
cal and transport phenomena in DSC has been widely reported
in the literature, a thorough analysis to quantitatively deter-
mine the optimal design and operating configuration in instal-
lation is lacking. The present study incorporates a model of the
DSC coupled with a model to predict global irradiance on a
terrestrial surface to analyze the hourly, daily, monthly and
annual performance of a DSC installation over a wide range of
design and operating parameters. Optimum design and operat-
ing parameters are derived from the analysis.

INTRODUCTION
The pursuit of environmentally benign and efficient means
of producing energy has accelerated researches in the field of
renewable energy sources. Solar cells utilize the clean, abun-
dant energy of the sun, thus aiding in the direct conversion of
sunlight into electricity. Solar technologies pave way to reduc-
ing the worlds dependence on fossil fuels, and offset green
house gas emissions. The focus of the present study is on dye
sensitized solar cell (DSC), also called the Grtzel cell, which
is one of the cost-effective solar technologies with reported
efficiency of 11.2% [1].
A typical DSC is composed of a dye adsorbed over a nano-
porous semiconductor film (usually titanium oxide, TiO
2
) on a
conducting glass, an electrolyte solution and Platinum sput-
tered conducting glass electrode as shown in Fig. 1. Light ab-
sorbed by the dye excites an electron which is transferred to
the nanoporous TiO
2
film. The electrons diffuse through the
nanoparticles until they reach the electrically conductive sur-
face for current collection. After doing work, the electrons
enter the conducting substrate on the anode and, with the aid
of the Platinum catalyst, interact with the Tri-iodide (I
3-
) ion in
the catalyst and combined another electron oxidizes it to an
Iodide (I
-
) ion. The Iodide ion moves toward the photoanode
and reduces to Tri-iodide ion by transferring an electron to the
excited dye, thus returning the dye to its ground state, ready
for its next cycle. This process occurs billions of times per
second within the cell thus producing electricity from sunlight.
Contrary to photovoltaic cells, the process of light absorption
and charge transport are separated. The dye molecules absorb
the light and generate charge carriers, while charge transport
occurs in the TiO
2
layer and electrolyte.
Over the last decade, numerous papers concerned with the
mathematical simulation of the transport and physical pheno-
mena in DSC have been published which provide valuable
insight into the functioning of the cell. There has been a conti-
nuous increase in the number of researches in this new class of
cell with significant commercialization interest as well. Papa-
georgiou et al. [2] presented a comprehensive analysis of the
migration and diffusion process in the steady state operation of
the cell without considering the electron transport in the TiO
2

network and the back reaction between the electrons and the
electrolyte at the cathode. The effects of design parameters on
the concentration potential of the cell were discussed.
Papageorgiou et al. [3] discussed the stability of acetonitrile
electrolyte and presented a detailed account of the diffusion of







FIGURE 1: Schematic of a DSC
t
TCO

TiO2/Dye/Electrolyte TCO Pt
Glass
t
TiO2

x
Proceedings of the 14th InternationaI Heat Transfer Conference
IHTC14
August 8-13, 2010, Washington, DC, USA
IHTC14-2
1 Copyright 2010 by ASME
Rev 1
Com 5
the ions in the electrolyte. Papageorgiou et al. [4] developed a
mass transfer simulation model of a DSC that describes the
interfacial oxidation-reduction reaction at the cathode using
the Butler-Volmer equation. Ferber et al. [5] developed a
complete model of the DSC considering the interfacial loss
mechanism associated with the recombination of injected elec-
trons in the TiO
2
network with the oxidized species (I
3
ions)
in the electrolyte. Tanaka et al. [6] extended the model of Fer-
ber et al. [5] to solid state cells and discussed the dependence
of energy efficiency on the thickness of cell. Korifatis et al. [7]
numerically modeled a DSC as that of Ferber et al. [5] and
examined the effects of cell thickness and porosity on the per-
formance of cell. Penny et al. [8,9] presented a detailed ma-
thematical model of the semiconductor-dye-electrolyte inter-
face which accounts for each interfacial charge injection and
recombination reaction within the DSC. The model accounts
for the transport of charged species due to concentration gra-
dient and electric field as presented by Penny et al. [9], which
compared favorably with their experimental results. They con-
cluded that the main recombination loss mechanism that af-
fects the photovoltage and photocurrent is the reduction of
iodide by the injected electrons in the TiO
2
electrode at the
interface. Ni et al. [10] studied the effect of electrode thick-
ness on the maximum power point of a DSC and determined
that the power density becomes limiting for a TiO
2
thickness
in the vicinity of 10m when N3 dye is used. Ni et al. [11]
developed a relation for the effect of porosity on the diffusion
coefficient of electron in the TiO
2
layer. A complete model of
a DSC was not considered for the simulations and only the
diffusion of electrons in the TiO
2
electrode was accounted for.
Though the studies in the literature report on the modeling
of the physical and transport phenomena in DSC, an outdoor
simulation to quantitatively determine the optimal design and
operating configuration for a DSC installation is lacking.
Accordingly two major groups of parameters are identified:
thickness of TiO
2
electrode and porosity constituting the de-
sign parameters and tilt angle as representative of operating
parameters for the study. Unlike a photovoltaic cell, whose
performance is governed primarily by the incident irradiation
intensity, the performance of a DSC is governed by the com-
bined effects of the spectral distribution of incident irradiation
and the spectral absorption coefficient of the dye. The prima-
ry goal and contribution of the paper is to present a methodol-
ogy for analysis-based design of DSC, and to this end, the
model employed in the present study is a combination of the
models for a DSC available in the literature combined with a
global terrestrial irradiation model. Using the models, a sys-
tematic analysis of the effects of the various parameters on the
performance of a DSC installation is presented and optimal
combination of design and operating parameters that delivers
the maximum energy density over a year is determined. To
this end, the model adopted in this study follows the descrip-
tion of the transport and electrochemical phenomena presented
by Ferber et al. [5] and Penny et al. [9], which is briefly re-
viewed in the following section.

MATHEMATICAL MODEL
To illustrate the methodology for analysis and optimization
of the selected cell design and operational parameters for max-
imum energy density, a one-dimensional model along the cell
thickness presented by Ferber et al. [5] and Penny et al. [9] is
employed. While many configurations of DSC can be used,
the following analysis considers TiO
2
semiconductor electrode
chemisorbed with Ruthenium based N3 dye. The mediator is
acetonitrile electrolyte comprising I

/I
3
ions. Considering the
cell operation at steady state, the governing equations for a
DSC are developed in the following discussion.
Light incident on the DSC is considered to be absorbed by
the charge transfer dye only. Within the photoanode, electron
injection from the dye into the TiO
2
layer takes place. Subse-
quently, the excited dye is returned to its ground state by the
oxidation of iodide ion into tri-Iodide ion as given by the fol-
lowing equation:

adsorbed adsorbed
Dye I I Dye + +
+
3
2
1
2
3
(1)
The ions are assumed to move either by diffusion or migra-
tion due to the presence of an effective macroscopic electric
field built up in the cell as a result of unbalanced local particle
concentrations [9]. Therefore, the continuity and transport
equations in the porous TiO
2
/dye/electrolyte layer, taking into
account the stoichiometry of the reaction given by Eq. (1) be-
comes
Species e

:

d
dx
D
e

dn
e

dx
+
e

n
e

E



(

( = R
e

G
e

(2)
Species I

:

d
dx
D
I

dn
I

dx
+
I
n
I
E



(

( =
3
2
R
e
+
3
2
G
e

(3)
Species I
3
:

d
dx
D
I
3
dn
I
3
dx
+
I
3 n
I
3 E



(

( =
1
2
R
e

1
2
G
e

(4)
Species c
+
:

d
dx
D
c
+
dn
c
+
dx
+
c
+ n
c
+ E



(

( = 0

(5)
where E is the electric field,

D
i

i
and

n
i
are the diffusion
coefficient, mobility and concentrations of the species,

i =e

, I

, I
3
, c
+
of which the cations,

i =c
+
, are considered
to be present only to promote the electroneutrality of the elec-
trolyte. The diffusivity and mobility of the species are interre-
lated through the Einsteins equation:

D
i
= kT e
o
( )
i
. The
diffusion coefficient of the electrons is calculated by means of
the relations deduced by Ni et al. [11] as a function of porosi-
ty, p:


D
e

=
1.6910
4
17.48p
3
+ 7.39p
2
2.89p+2.15
( )
0 < p < 0.41
4 10
4
p0.76
0.82
0.41< p < 0.76







(6)

The loss mechanism considered in this study is the relaxa-
tion rate of the conduction band electrons in the stationary
state with illumination and is expressed by [5]:


R
e

( x) = k
e

n
e

n
I
3
n
I

n
e

n
I

n
I
3
n
I

3






`

)

(7)
where

n
i
represents the equilibrium concentration of the spe-
cies.

The generation rate of electrons assuming 100% quantum
efficiency due to the fast rate of electron injection process can
be expressed by the Beer-Lamberts law as follows:



G
e

(x) = o()|() exp[o()x] } dx

(8)
2 Copyright 2010 by ASME
where ) ( o

represents the absorption coefficient of the dye
given as

o() =c()c
dye
log
10
e; c() =R
f
a

where ) ( c
denotes the spectral molar extinction co-efficient of the dye,
the values for which are extracted as a function of wavelength
from Tanaka et al. [6], ) ( | denotes the incident photon flux
density, and x represents the distance along the thickness as
shown in Fig. 1. Furthermore, the electric field built in the cell
is characterized by the equation



dE
dx
=
e
cc
0
(n
c
n
e
n
I
n
I3
)

(9)

Equations (2)(5) and (9) representing the governing equa-
tions for the four unknown species concentrations and the un-
known electric field require nine boundary conditions to com-
plete the problem formulation, as discussed below:
- The metal semiconductor contact is assumed to be ohmic,
for which

0 = E (10)
- Due to the conservation of particle numbers the integral
of the concentration of the charge carriers is always equal
to the equilibrium concentration of the species.


n
c
+
0
t
TiO
2
}
(x).dx= n
c
+
.p.t
TiO
2

(11)
- From the stoichiometry of reaction given by Eq. (1), it
follows that

2
3
2
3 . .
3
1
. ) (
3
1
) (
0
TiO
I I
t
I I
t p n n dx x n x n
TIO
(

+ =
}
(

+
(12)

2
2
. .
3
1
2
1
. ) (
3
1
) (
2
1
0
TiO
I e
t
I e
t p n n dx x n x n
TIO
(

+ =
}
(

+
(13)
- At the TiO
2
-Pt interface (

x = t
TiO
2
), the contribution from
electron current density is zero and the charge carriers are
only the ionic species.

0 =

e
j (14)
- At the TiO
2
-TCO interface (

x = 0), there are no contribu-
tions from the iodide, tri-iodide or cation current densi-
ties, which yields the following three conditions:

0 3 = = = +
c I I
j j j (15)
- Further, at 0 = x , the net current carried by the electrons
through the interface should be similar in magnitude to
the current generated by the redox reaction occuring at the
TiO
2
-Pt interface,

I
3
(cathode)

+2e

3I
(cathode)

which is governed by Nernst potential coupled with the
Butler-Volmer equation, expressed as:

Pt
B
TiO
oc
I
TiO
I
Pt
B
TiO
I
TiO
oc
I
TiO
oc
I
TiO
I
o
e
U
T k
e
t n
t n
U
T k
e
t n t n
t n t n
j j
|
|
exp
) (
) (
) 1 ( exp
) ( ) (
) ( ). (
) 0 (
2
2
2 2
2 2
3
3
(16)
where U
Pt
is the overpotential developed at the counter
electrode, given by | |
int
) 0 (
1
U E E
e
U
OC
redox
n
F Pt
= in
which the quasi-Fermi level of the electrons at

x = 0 is
expressed as a function of energy of the TiO
2
conduction


FIGURE 2: Electrical resistance network equivalent of a
DSC

band edge,
CB
E , concentration of thermally excited conduc-
tion electrons electron density at x = 0,
e
n (0), and density of
conduction band states,
CB
N :
CB
e
B CB
n
F
N
n
T k E E
) 0 (
ln ) 0 ( + = . The
term
CB
N is, in turn, given by

2 m
e
*
k
B
T 2th
2
( )
3 2
, where

m
e
*

and h represent the electron effective mass and Planck con-
stant, respectively. The redox energy at the open-circuit,

E
redox
oc
, can be expressed as
( )
|
|
|
.
|

\
|
=

3
2
2
) (
) (
ln
2
3
st TiO
oc
I
st TiO
oc
I B o
redox
oc
redox
n t n
n t n
T k
E E where

E
redox
o

stands for the standard potential of the

I

I
3

redox couple
and n
st
is the standard reference concentration. In an open cir-
cuit, U
Pt
= 0 and the internal voltage of the cell,

U
int
, gives the
open circuit photovoltage.

The internal voltage of the cell in
other cases is usually found by considering the equivalent cir-
cuit of the cell as shown in Fig. 2, for which, from Kirchoff's
law it can be shown that ) 0 (
int
=
e
Aj I and

I
ext
=
R
P
R
ext
+R
TCO
+R
P
|
\

|
.
|
I
int
, where R
P
is the shunt resis-
tance of the cell which characterizes internal leakage in the
cell, R
TCO
represents series resistance of the TCO, and R
ext
is
the external load. From the above relation, the internal voltage
of the cell is calculated as

U
int
= (R
TCO
+ R
ext
)I
ext
and the
external photovoltage as

U
ext
= I
ext
R
ext
.


The equilibrium concentrations of the species appearing in
Eqs. (11)(13) are given by


n
I
3 = C
I
3
o
,

n
I
= C
I

o
. By the
charge neutrality condition, the equilibrium concentration of
cations is given by

n
c
+ = n
I
3 + n
I
+ n
e

. The equilibrium
concentration of electrons,

n
e

, can be found by solving the

set of governing equations with the condition ( ) 0 0 =

e
j .
The nonlinear coupled set of governing equations, Eqs. (2)
(5) and (9) along with the boundary conditions Eqs. (10)(16)
was discretized using a finite difference formulation and
solved using the Newton's Relaxation method. The integral
boundary conditions, Eqs. (11)(13), were solved by trans-
forming them into differential equations, thus generating two
local boundary conditions with one of them replacing the for-
mer integral boundary condition. Also, the final boundary
condition, Eq.(16), which involves properties at two different
locations in the domain, is converted into a standard two-point
DSC
R
TCO


R
ext

U
ext

I
int

I
ext
U
int

R
P


3 Copyright 2010 by ASME

FIGURE 3: Validation of the present numerical model with
the results of Ferber et al [5].

boundary value problem by the inclusion of an additional tri-
vial differential equation with two local boundary conditions
[5]. Apart from the design and operating parameters studied,
the other major inputs to the model include the absorption co-
efficient of the dye per unit wavelength, solar irradiation
which depends on the geographical location of the terrain and
the climactic conditions - temperature, surface pressure, rela-
tive humidity, CO
2
concentration, ozone amount, visibility.
The outputs from the model comprise of the concentration
profiles of the species involved, electron density profile, cur-
rent density profile with 'x' and the current density variation
with the photovoltage, referred to as the j-V curve.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
In order to validate the present numerical model, the simula-
tion results are compared with the numerical results found in
the literature. Figure 3 compares the j-V curve obtained from
the present simulation with the results of Ferber et al. [5]. It
can be seen from the plot that as the current density increases,
the diffusion of the tri-iodide towards the cathode becomes
limiting primarily due to its low initial concentration [2] and
the limiting current density obtained for this case is 15.44
mA/cm
2
. The plot shows very good agreement with the nu-
merical results obtained from Ferber et al. [5] whose model
forms the basis of the present model. Parametric studies based
on the validated model are discussed throughout the rest of the
section.
Solar radiation, which is nearly constant outside the earths
atmosphere, varies with changing atmospheric conditions and
the position of the earth relative to the sun. In an effort to de-
termine the optimal design and operating conditions of a dye
sensitized solar cell installation, the simulation code SMARTS
v2.9.5 developed by Guyemard et al. [19,20] which has the
capability to simulate solar spectrum for various regions is
used. The major input parameters that govern the solar irradia-
tion at a particular time of day and at a particular region are
the latitude, longitude, elevation, surface pressure, tempera-
ture, relative humidity, ozone amount and visibility, which are
obtained from the literature sources [12,13]. The other input
parameters required to generate the solar spectrum are docu-
mented in [14,15], which the readers are referred to for more
information. The region selected for the present simulation is
TABLE 1: Base case parameters
Electron relaxation rate constant,

k
e
(s
-1
) 10
4

Electron mobility,

e
(cm
2
/Vs) 0.3
Iodide diffusion constant,

D
I
(cm
2
/s)
8.510
6

Tri-iodide diffusion constant,

D
I
3
(cm
2
/s)
8.510
6

Initial concentration of iodide,

C
I

0
(M) 0.45
Initial concentration of tri-iodide,

C
I
3
0
(M) 0.05
Effective mass of electron,

m
e
*
5.6

m
e

Exchange current density of the platinum elec-
trode,

j
0
(A/cm
2
)
0.1
Symmetry parameter,

| 0.78
Effective relative dielectric constant,

c 50
Difference in conduction band and standard
electrolyte redox energy level,

E
CB
E
redox
0

(eV)
0.93
Sheet resistance of TCO glass substrate,

R
TCO

(ohm/sq.)
6
Shunt resistance,

R
P
(ohm) 10,000
Incident spectral photon flux density, ) ( |
AM1.5
global
Thickness of TiO
2
layer,

t
TiO
2
(m)
10
Porosity, p 0.5
Temperature, T (K) 298
Concentration of dye adsorbed on an ideal flat
surface,

o

(mol/cm
2
)
1.310
10


Colorado Springs, USA (Latitude: 38.8
o
N, Longitude: 104.8
o

W, Northern Hemisphere). The design parameters considered
in the present study are the thickness of TiO
2
layer,

t
TiO
2
, and
the porosity, p, while the tilt angle, , is the operating parame-
ter considered. The default case pertains to

t
TiO
2
of 10 m, p
of 0.5 and of 37.5
o
.
To begin with, the performance of dye sensitized solar cell
is analyzed for a particular time of a day namely, June 5, 2008
at 11:54 hrs. Figures 4(a)(c), respectively, show the j-V
curves as the thickness of TiO
2
layer, the porosity and the tilt
angle are varied. It can be seen in Fig. 4(a) that beyond a TiO
2

layer thickness of about 10m, the increase in current density
due to further increase in

t
TiO
2

is minimal. It was found that
there is significant generation of electrons even beyond TiO
2

thickness of 10m which signifies that the incident irradiation
has not reached its critical penetration depth and offers poten-
tial for increased current density. However, the minimal in-
crease in the current density noted for thickness beyond 10 m
can be attributed to the fact that the electrons injected at the
far end of photoanode become more prone to recombination
reaction and do not contribute to the production of electricity.
Correspondingly, the open circuit voltage decreases from
0.823V for

t
TiO
2
of 3m to 0.793V for

t
TiO
2
of 24m due to
the reduction in electron density. From Fig. 4(b) it can be seen
that increasing the porosity of the dye-sensitized solar cell has
a negative impact on the performance of DSC mainly due to
the decrease in diffusion coefficient of electrons in TiO
2
nano-
pores, as can be inferred from Eq. (6). This is because a de-
crease in D
e
decreases the diffusion length leading to fewer
0
4
8
12
16
Ferber et al. [5]
Present Model
0.0 0.2 0.3 0.5 0.6 0.8
Photovoltage, V [volt]
4 Copyright 2010 by ASME


FIGURE 4: Parametric effects of (a) TiO2 layer thickness,
(b) Porosity, and (c) Tilt angle on the j-V curve.

electrons being extracted. Hence as porosity decreases, the
current density, j, increases. The tilt angle governs the amount
of photon flux incident on the DSC which in turn influences
the j-V curve of the DSC Fig. 4(c). As the suns position rela-
tive to the earth changes through the day, the incident
irradiation on the cell varies for different tilt angle. Corres-
pondingly, the tilt angle for which the maximum current den-
sity is obtained varies throughout the day. Based on the inci-
dent photon flux distribution for various tilt angles provided
by SMARTS v 2.9.5, for the simulated time of the day, of
15.5
o
is found to have the highest incident photon flux distri-
bution, which in turn gives the maximum current density in
Fig. 4(c).


FIGURE 5: Variation of maximum power density as a func-
tion of (a) TiO2 layer thickness, (b) porosity, (c) tilt angle.

Since the maximum power density, P
max
, that could be gen-
erated from a DSC is one of the factors that govern its design,
the parametric effects on P
max
are analyzed in Figures 5(a)(c).
The P
max
value is derived from the j-V curve, Fig. 4, as the
maximum of the product of j and the corresponding V values.
From Fig. 5(a), it can be observed that P
max
reaches a maxi-
mum value beyond a TiO
2
layer thickness of 10 m
t
TiO2
= 3 m
t
TiO2
= 10 m
t
TiO2
= 24 m
0
5
10
15
20
25
(a)
0
5
10
15
20
p = 0.2
p = 0.4
p = 0.5
p = 0.7
(b)
C
u
r
r
e
n
t

D
e
n
s
i
t
y
,

j

[
m
A
/
c
m
2
]
o = 0
o
o = 15.5
o
o = 37.5
o
o = 70
o
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8
0
5
10
15
20
(c)
Photovoltage, V [volt]
0 5 10 15 20 25
0
3
6
9
12
15
TiO
2
Layer Thickness, t
TiO2
[m]
(a)
M
a
x
.

P
o
w
e
r

D
e
n
s
i
t
y
,

P
m
a
x

[
m
W
/
c
m
2
]
0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8
0
3
6
9
12
15
Porosity, p
(b)
M
a
x
.

P
o
w
e
r

D
e
n
s
i
t
y
,

P
m
a
x

[
m
W
/
c
m
2
]
0
3
6
9
12
15
0 15 30 45 60 75
Tilt Angle, o [deg]
(c)
M
a
x
.

P
o
w
e
r

D
e
n
s
i
t
y
,

P
m
a
x

[
m
W
/
c
m
2
]
5 Copyright 2010 by ASME
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
o = 0
o
o = 15.5
o
o = 37.5
o
o = 70
o
5:54 7:37 9:20 11:03 12:45 14:28 16:11 17:54
Time of Day [hh:mm]
G
l
o
b
a
l

I
r
r
a
d
i
a
t
i
o
n
,

I
G

[
m
W
/
c
m
2
]

FIGURE 6: Global Irradiance as a function of time for dif-
ferent values of tilt angle.

corresponding of the invariance of the j-V curve with the TiO
2

layer thickness beyond this value observed in Fig. 4(a). Fol-
lowing the discussions for Fig. 4(b), it is also seen in Fig. 5(b)
that P
max
decreases with porosity due to the corresponding
decrease in D
e
. For the present simulation the maximum pow-
er density peaks at = 15.5
o
which follows from the peak of
the j-V variation observed in Fig. 4(c). Though the effect of
design parameters

t
TiO
2
and p on the maximum power
density will be the same for different times of a day, the tilt
angle, o, will have a nonmonotonic effect on P
max
as it so does
with the incident photon flux distribution on the cell. Amongst
the three plots in Fig. 5, the highest maximum power density
is obtained as 12.52 mW/cm
2
for the configuration of

t
TiO
2
=
10 m, p = 0.2 and = 37.5
o
[Fig. 4(b)]. Figure 6 presents the
global incident irradiation for various configurations of the
cell on the day considered for simulation namely, June 15,
2008. The curve is obtained by integrating the intensity of
sunlight over a wavelength of 300800 nm, (which is the ac-
tive region of the dye used in the DSC) for various times of
the day considered in the simulation. The tilt angle, , of 0
o

corresponds to the horizontal position of the cell parallel to the
ground where the intensity is found to be the highest except at
certain times of the day. Though it can be argued that the hori-
zontal position of the cell receives the maximum amount of
insolation, the concentration of irradiation also depends on the
relative position of the sun with respect to the earth that
changes continuously during the day. This nonmonotonic ef-
fect caused the global irradiance to peak during the afternoon
for of 15.5
o
. Also, the curves will differ for various days of a
year although the profile for a certain tilt angle will remain the
same in that the incident irradiation at sunrise and sunset of a
day is minimum and peaks sometime during the day.
Using the irradiance information such as that presented in
Fig. 6, the maximum power density obtained from the cell at
various times of the day is analyzed and presented in Figs.
7(a)(c). The power delivered by the cell at sunrise and sunset
is negligible and assumed to be zero at these conditions. In
Figs. 7(a) and 7(b), it can be seen that P
d,max
peaks in the after-
noon, where the DSC receives the maximum amount of solar
irradiance as seen in Fig. 6 for the default case of = 37.5
o
.
All the curves follow the same trend as explained with


FIGURE 7: Parametric effects of (a) bulk electrolyte layer
thickness, (b) porosity, (c) tilt angle on the maximum pow-
er density simulated for a day, June 15, 2008.

reference to the irradiation variation through the day in Fig. 6.
Figure 7(c), which portrays the maximum power density as a
function of time for various tilt angles, follows almost the
same trend as in Fig. 6. The discrepancies can be explained
with reference to Eq. (8) which relates the dependence of elec-
tron generation rate to the distribution of number of incident
photons and that of the spectral absorption coefficient of the
dye. Though Fig. 6, the global irradiance as a function of time
governs the principal variation of the maximum power density
with time of day, it is the incident photon flux as a function of
wavelength that governs the electron generation in a DSC,
which is reflected in the variation seen in Fig. 7(c).


t
TiO2
= 3 m
t
TiO2
= 10 m
t
TiO2
= 24 m
0
4
7
11
14
18
(a)
0
4
7
11
14
p = 0.2
p = 0.4
p = 0.5
p = 0.7
(b)
M
a
x
.

P
o
w
e
r

D
e
n
s
i
t
y
,

P
d
,
m
a
x

[
m
W
/
c
m
2
]
o = 0
o
o = 15.5
o
o = 37.5
o
o = 70
o
5:54 7:37 9:20 11:03 12:45 14:28 16:11 17:54
0
4
7
11
14
(c)
Time of Day [hh:mm]
6 Copyright 2010 by ASME


FIGURE 8: Parametric effects of (a) TiO2 layer thickness,
(b) porosity, (c) tilt angle on the maximum energy density
simulated for the year 2008.

Using the daily variation of the maximum power density,
such as in Fig. 7, the maximum energy density, E
d,max
for each
half month of a year is calculated from the following equation:

|
|
.
|

\
|

|
|
.
|

\
|
=
}
}
day s remaining ) 15 (
day s 15 first 15
) 15 (
max ,
) 1 (
max ,
15 Day
max ,
1 Day
max ,
max ,
d dt P
dt P
E
d
d
P
SS
SR
d
P
SS
SR
d
d


(17)
TABLE 2: Optimum tilt angles that maximize energy densi-
ty for various months in 2008
Month (deg.) Month (deg.)
Jan 70 Jul 15.5
Feb
1
70 Aug
1
15.5
Feb
2
0 Aug
2
0
Mar 37.5 Sep 0
Apr
1
0 Oct
1
0
Apr
2
15.5 Oct
2
70
May 15.5 Nov 70
Jun 15.5 Dec 70
Superscripts 1 and 2 represent the first half and
second half of a month respectively.

where d represents the duration of a month, which can take
one of the following values28, 29, 30, or 31 depending on
the month, and the limits of integration SR and SS represent
the time of sunrise and sunset, respectively, for the day under
consideration. The integration is carried out numerically using
the trapezoidal rule based on the respective daily variation
profiles for Day 1 and Day 15 of each month, to obtain the
daily-total maximum power density. In the calculation of

E
d, max
is assumed that the daily-total maximum power densi-
ty for Day 1 of a month (

P
d,max
(1)
) applies to the first 15 days
and that for Day 15 (

P
d,max
(15)
) applies to the remainder of that
month.
Figures 8(a)(c) present the parametric effects on the maxi-
mum energy density as a function of each half-month in the
year considered. In general, it is seen that the maximum ener-
gy density increases from January (winter) to the middle of the
year (summer) and decreases later in the year. It is observed
that the effects of

t
TiO
2
and p follow the same trend as those
observed in Fig. 6, in that the maximum energy density levels
off with increasing thickness of the TiO
2
layer and monotoni-
cally decreases as the porosity increases. Figure 8(c) shows
that the variation of the maximum energy density is nonmono-
tonic with the tilt angle. Figure 8(c) can be used to determine
the optimum tilt angle that maximizes the maximum energy
density for the first and fifteenth day of each month. The op-
timum tilt angles which give the maximum energy density for
various months in the year 2008 are listed in Table 2, where
only one value is given for those months in which there was
no variation observed from the first to the fifteenth day. The
data in Table 2 provide information for an active tracking con-
trol of the tilt angle of a cell during its operation so as to max-
imize the energy collection.

CONCLUSIONS
The results presented in this paper illustrate a methodology
to determine the daily and monthly variation of the perfor-
mance of a DSC in installation as a function of selected exam-
ple design and operational parameters. For the parametric stu-
dies adopted, it is found that a low porous material enhances
the performance of DSC while increase in TiO
2
layer thick-
ness increases the current density until a limiting value. The
tilt angles govern the incident irradiation and showed a non-
t
TiO2
= 3 m
t
TiO2
= 10 m
t
TiO2
= 24 m
0
60
120
180
240
300
(a)
0
60
120
180
240
p = 0.2
p = 0.4
p = 0.5
p = 0.7
(b)
M
a
x
.

E
n
e
r
g
y

D
e
n
s
i
t
y
,

E
d
,
m
a
x

[
m
J
/
c
m
2
]
o = 0
o
o = 15.5
o
o = 37.5
o
o = 70
o
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
0
60
120
180
240
(c)
Month
7 Copyright 2010 by ASME
monotonic effect on the energy density obtained. The metho-
dology may be extended to include other parameters as well as
other locations in a future study.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was supported by a grant from the U.S. Depart-
ment of Energy under Award Number DE-FG36-08GO18146.
Their support is gratefully acknowledged.

NOMENCLATURE
A cell area (m
2
)
c
dye
concentration of monolayer dye
C concentration in bulk electrolyte (m
-3
)
D diffusion constant (m
2
/s)
E macroscopic electric field (V/m)
e
0
elementary charge (As)
E
CB
conduction band energy (J)

E
F
n
quasi-Fermi energy (J)
E
redox
redox energy (J)

G
e
generation rate of electrons (m
-3
s
-1
)
h Plancks constant (Js)
I electric current (A)
j current density (A/m
2
)
j
0
exchange current density at Pt electrode (A/m
2
)
k
e
electron relaxation rate constant (s
-1
)
k Boltzmanns constant (J/K)
K chemical equilibrium constant (m
-3
)
m
e
electron mass (kg)

m
e
*
effective electron mass (kg)
n particle density (m
-3
)
N
CB
effective density of the states in the TiO
2
conduction
band (m
-3
)
p porosity
R resistance (ohms)

R
e

relaxation rate (m
-3
s
-1
)
R
f
roughness factor

t
TiO
2
thickness of the TiO
2
layer (m)
T temperature (K)
U
Pt
overpotential at the cathode (V)
V photovoltage (volt)
x position co-ordinate along the cell thickness (m)

Greek symbols:
() absorption coefficient (m
-1
)
symmetry parameter (dimensionless)
dielectric constant (dimensionless)

o
permittivity of free space (As/Vm)
() molar extinction co-efficient of the dye (M/cm)
|() spectral incident photon flux density (m
-3
s
-1
)
electrochemical potential (J)
wavelength (m)
mobility (m
2
/Vs)

Subscripts:

I

iodide ions

I
3
tri-iodide ions

c
+
cations

e

electrons



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8 Copyright 2010 by ASME