2017 IEEE International Conference on Technological Advancements in Power and Energy (TAP Energy )
Influence of film thickness of photoanode on dye
sensitized solar cell performance
C.O.Sreekala
Department of Physics
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
Amritapuri, India-690525
sreekalaco@am.amrita.edu
Abstract— Solar energy is a potential candidate to fulfill the
rapidly increasing energy demands of future generation. Owing
to this increasing demand, high efficiency solar cells stand an
area of intense research. Dye Sensitized Solar Cells have
attracted lot of recognition and is considered as a promising
upcoming technology, which can compete with silicon based solar
cells, owing to its intrinsic cost reduction potential, relatively
modest production technology and its versatility. The efficiency
parameter of a cell is governed by the adsorption of dye
molecules, which depends on the thickness of the semiconducting
layer. This paper emphasizes on the effect of thickness of the
TiO2 layer of DSSC on its conversion efficiency by means of spin
coating and Doctor blade techniques. The photo voltaic
parameters were studied and compared with the thickness of the
fabricated devices, measured using ellipsometry. It is found that
the device fabricated using spin coating technique with single
layer have relatively higher efficiency (about 2.53 %). This work
enabled us to know the role of thickness in the efficiency of
DSSC.
Index Terms— Film thickness, Dye sensitized solar cell,
Sensitizer, Ellipsometry
I. INTRODUCTION
The global energy consumption is increasing quickly since
the beginning of 21st century. Such an increase in global
energy consumption naturally leads to a sharp rise in the
demand of non-renewable resources. The use of fossil fuels,
notably petroleum is the dominant one. Each stage in the
processing of fossil fuels like extraction, transport, processing
and combustion leads to health as well as environmental
hazards, of which climate related events are the worst. Many
of the environmental issues that we face today are the
consequence of our dependence on fossil fuels. Besides, the
combustion of fossil fuels produces release of greenhouse
gasses such as carbon dioxide which are believed to impose a
major impact on global warming.
Motivated by enormously increasing energy demands and
the reduction of readily accessible fossil fuels; the search for
substitute energy sources has become the focus of attention.
Nuclear energy has been a better alternative, which is cost
effective energy source to meet increasing energy demands.
Nuclear power plants are likely to play an important role in
978-1-5386-4021-0/17/$31.00 ©2017IEEE
R.Pragash, K.S.Sreelatha and Jinchu.I
Department of Physics,
Govt. College Kottayam,
Kerala, India-686013
drjinchumanoj@gmail.com
gathering future energy sources apart from fossil fuel energy
sources. However radioactive waste disposal pose a serious
challenge in the atomic energy industry. Several nuclear
disasters had occurred in the history as triggered wide spread
public concern across the world in terms in terms of safety
issues of nuclear power.
So the rising future energy demands became a big question
in front of the mankind. The renewable energy sources such as
solar, biomass; wind hydropower etc. have the potential to
replace the non-renewable energy sources. Renewable energy
sources are expected to play a magnificent role in moving the
world to a more reliable, secure and sustainable energy
system. Of these renewable energy sources, solar energy is the
most abundant energy resource for earth. Our planet receives
trillion and trillion Joules of energy every year from the Sun
[1], however only one percentage of this energy is converted
to useful purposes. This would be four times of total
generating capacity of the planet. Therefore, solar photovoltaic
technologies [2] have received considerable attention as a
more secured sustainable energy system.
Of varieties of techniques developed to harness solar
energy, utilization of solar energy by solar cells is an effective
method and has high impact in commercial market. Solar cells
are categorized into three generations depending on the
materials and techniques used to fabricate solar cells [3].
Silicon based solar cells are not a competitor of fossil fuels
due to their high production costs. So there is a need to
develop economic photovoltaic devices with reasonable
efficiency. In this context, dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs)
[4] have arisen as an important alternative to conventional
silicon solar cells due to their captivating features such as low
fabrication cost and relatively high efficiency [5]. This work
explains how the thickness of the photoanode in a DSSC
influences its photovoltaic performances. Here we used a
natural dye called Alizarin red, for sensitizing the DSSC [6]
II. EXPERIMENTAL SECTION
A. Materials and Methods
Fluorine doped tin oxide-coated glass substrate having
resistance of 10Ω/cm2 is purchased from Solaronix,
Switzerland. Titanium dioxide nano crystalline Degussa P-25
is from Orion Chem. Pvt. Ltd, India. Alizarin red S having (P1) rotate from 0˚ to 90˚we get null intensity at a particular
molecular formula C14H7Na2O7S (molecular weight 342.3) & angle (say, P1=41 & A1=8). Similarly, rotate Polarizer (P2)
Alizarin green (C28H20N2Na2O8S2) having molecular weight from 270˚ to 360˚ and analyser (A2) from 90˚ to 180˚ we
622.58 is purchased from Merck. Other chemicals such as obtain null intensity. The values so obtained are added to
Acetone, Methanol, Acetonitrile, 1 butyl 3methyl software to obtain the corresponding thickness of the required
imadazolium iodide, Guanidium thiocyanate, Iodine (I2), 4-tert film. The readings thus directly obtained from the
butyl pyridine and Titron X-100 are purchased from Sigma ellipsometer are included in table 1. Here n1 & n2 are
Aldrich. refractive index of TiO2 and air respectively. Among these,
spin coating with single layer has the least thickness (451.3
B. Preparation of Working Electrode nm). The details of the thickness of the samples are shown in
FTO glass plate are cleaned as reported in paper [7] and is table 1.
used for both the photoanode and cathode preparation.
Different methods like spray pyrolysis are available for the TABLE I. THICKNESS OF TIO2 FILM PREPARED BY
coating of titanium dioxide [8]. The TiO2 paste is prepared by DIFFERENT TECHNIQUES
sonicating crushed TiO2 powder mixed with distilled water.
Sample n1 n2 P1a A 1b P 2a A 2b Thickness
Titron X-100 is added into this paste of TiO2 for more
(⁰) (⁰) (nm)
adhesion and is coated on cleaned FTOs using doctor blade
FTO+TiO2 c 2.88 1.5 81.1 3 131.7 152.5 841.5
technique and spin coating (single & double layer) technique
[9]. These coated FTOs are allowed to air dry and after
FTO+TiO2 d 1.6 1.5 47.9 0.4 317.9 142 451.3
sintered in muffle furnace at 450° C for 30 minutes. The single layer
sintered FTOs are dipped in alizarin red and alizarin green dye
solution overnight for sensitization. FTO+TiO2 d 2.165 1.5 72 26.3 151.4 204 752.4
double
layer
C. Preparation of Counter Electrode a.Polariser angle b.Analyser angle c.Doctor blade d.Spin coating
Chloroplatinic acid in isopropanol is coated on FTO glass
substrate by spin coating technique (600 rpm for 15 min). It is
placed in the oven at 80°C for 1 hour and followed by
sintering in an electronic muffle furnace at 150°C for 30 B. Conductivity of Electrolyte
minutes. Conductivity of an electrolyte solution is a measure of its
ability to conduct electricity. Here we used Systronics
D. Preparation of Electrolyte and Assembling of DSSC conductivity TDS meter 308 to measure the conductivity of
For the preparation of 100ml electrolyte, acetonitrile is used as electrolyte and the conductivity of the prepared electrolyte is
solvent. The other constituent components are weighed and found to be 23.44 ms/ppt.
mixed to the solvent and magnetic stirred well. 15.9672 mg of
1 butyl 3 methylimadazolium iodide, 1.3385g of Lithium C. Absorption studies of the sensitizers
Iodide, 1.1816g of Guanidium thiocyanate, 1.269g of Iodine
(I2) and 6.7605g of 4-trer butyl pyridine, finally the solution is To study the absorbance; we first consider the absorption
sonicated for 15 minutes. The device is assembled by injecting spectrum of the dyes Alizarin green and Alizarin red and is
the prepared electrolyte in between the photo-electrode and shown in Fig. 1 and Fig.2. From the figures it is clear that the
the counter electrode. absorption of alizarin green takes place at a wavelength range
of about 600 nm to 790 nm. The absorption of alizarin red
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION takes place at a wavelength range of about 420 nm to 530 nm.
The TiO2 electrode is dipped in ethanol solution of the dye at
room temperature for 12 h for the effective adsorption of the
A. Thickness study of TiO2 film using Ellipsometer dye and then the electrode is washed with pure ethanol to
remove the unadorbed dye on the surface of the sensitized
film. The amount of adsorbed dye is determined by
To study the effect of thickness of the thin film for the spectroscopic measurement. The UV-Vis absorption bands of
performance of the fabricated device is examined using the absorbed dyes on to semiconductor film are broadened and
ellipsometer. To calibrate the ellipsometer the following the corresponding maxima are red shifted with respect to each
procedures are performed. In null ellipsometry we kept the dye. This is one of the key factors to select the dye as
compensator at 45˚ and changed analyzer and polarizer angle sensitizer for the fabrication of dye sensitized solar cells.
to obtain minimum intensity. Analyzer (A1) and Polarizer
 Fig. 1. Absorption Spectrum of Alizarin Green dye
Fig.4. J-V characteristics of fabricated Photovoltaic cell using alizarin red

It is found that the natural dye sensitized solar cell

fabricated with alizarin green and alizarin red from the spin
coated single layer nanoparticle is getting open circuit voltage
(Voc) 0.79V, short circuit current 5.52 mA/cm2 and
5.32mA/cm2 fill factor (ff) 0.56 leading to the power
conversion efficiency of 2.49% and 2.40% respectively. The
photovoltaic parameters of the fabricated deices are given in
table2.

TABLE. II. PHOTOVOLTAIC PARAMETERS OF THE FABRICATED

DEVICES

Fig.2. Absorption spectrum of Alizarin red dye Technique Sample Jsc Voc J max Vmax FF Efficiency
(mA) (A) (mA) (A) (%)

D. J-V Characteristics of fabricated Photovoltaic cell using

Spin Alizarin 5.52 0.79 4.54 0.56 0.58 2.49
Alizarin Red and Green coating Green
with single Alizarin 5.32 0.79 4.37 0.56 0.58 2.40
The devices fabricated using the natural dyes are characterized layer
Red
by Keithley 2420 source meter along with Newport 69907Arc
Spin Alizarin 5.52 0.79 4.79 0.52 0.57 2.30
lamp Source to find the J-V characteristics [10]. Important coating Green
physical parameters which determines the efficiency of with double Alizarin 5.32 0.79 4.62 0.52 0.57 2.16
DSSCs are determined from the photo-current-voltage curve, layer
Red
and the results are presented in table 2. The J-V characteristics Doctor Alizarin 4.21 0.79 3.87 0.52 0.60 2.01
of the fabricated devices are shown in Fig.3 and Fig.4. blade Green
Alizarin 4.1 0.79 3.56 0.52 0.57 1.85
Red

Fig.3. J-V characteristics of fabricated Photovoltaic cell using alizarin green
IV. CONCLUSION
DSSCs are fabricated using Doctor blade technique and Spin
coating technique (single and double layer) with Alizarin
Green and Alizarin Red as sensitizer. The Pt coated counter
electrode, iodine based electrolyte are used for making
sandwiched type cell. From all these studies, it is evident that
DSSC with Alizarin Green as sensitizer shows more efficiency
than DSSCs with Alizarin Red and also among the three
techniques, Spin coating with single layer shows greater
efficiency. By the thickness analysis it is clear that the effect
of thickness also played a vital role in the performance of the
device. The J-V characteristics are plotted and photovoltaic
parameters are also measured. It is found that the DSSC
fabricated with alizarin green as the sensitizer by spin coating
technique (single layer) shows maximum Jsc (5.52 mA/cm2)
and efficiency (2.53%).
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors, JI and KSS acknowledge KSCSTE, Govt. of
Kerala for granting financial assistance in the form of
Research Project (004/SRSPS/2014/CSTE).
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