Efficiency Improvement of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells Using WO₃

Abstract

In this work, we report for the first time the improvement of the photovoltaic characteristics of DSSCs by mixing TiO₂ with WO₃. WO₃ reduced the surface trap states of TiO₂, which suppressed the charge recombination and increased the driving force of electron injection, thereby improving its power conversion efficiency. It was observed that DSSCs fabricated using the WO₃-mixed TiO₂ films show the maximum conversion efficiency of 4.84% because of the effective prevention of the electron recombination. DSSCs based on WO₃-mixed TiO₂ films showed better photovoltaic performance than cells fabricated with only TiO₂ nanoparticles.

Keywords:

• DSSCs
• WO₃
• TiO₂
• mixture
• photovoltaic performance
• electron recombination

Funding

This work was supported by the Human Resources Development program (No. 20124030200010) of the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning (KETEP) grant funded by the Korea government Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) Grant Funded by the Korean Government (MEST) (No. 2012R1A1A2044472).