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- Title
Increase of power conversion efficiency in dye-sensitized solar cells through ferroelectric substrate induced charge transport enhancement.
- Authors
Liu, Xiaoyan; Zhang, Qifeng; Li, Jiangyu; Valanoor, Nagarajan; Tang, Xiao; Cao, Guozhong
- Abstract
Ferroelectric functionalized dye-sensitized solar cells were fabricated by using a positively-poled LiNbO3 substrate coated with ITO (ITO-LiNbO3) as a collector electrode and demonstrated enhanced power conversion efficiency. Surface potential properties of TiO2 nanoparticle film coated on the ITO-LiNbO3 (TiO2/ITO-LiNbO3) examined by Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) confirmed that a large electric field (a few 10 V/µm) generated from LiNbO3 can penetrate through the ITO layer and is applied to TiO2 film. This polarization-induced electric field leads to an increased photocurrent density by attracting and promoting electrons to direct transport through the mesoporous TiO2 network toward the collector electrode and a decreased charge recombination by facilitating electrons to pass through fewer boundaries of nanoparticles, resulting in high power conversion efficiency. The power conversion efficiency was enhanced by more than 40% in comparison with that without polarization-induced electric field. Incorporating functional ferroelectrics into photovoltaic cells would be a good strategy in improving photovoltaic performance and is applicable to other types of photovoltaic devices, such as perovskite solar cells.
- Publication
Scientific Reports, 2018, Vol 8, Issue 1, p1
- ISSN
2045-2322
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1038/s41598-018-35764-y