Performance evaluation method of dye-sensitized solar cell under modulated illumination

Abstract

The organic solar cell is promising as a permanent power source for indoor IoT devices. Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) have been commercialized for this purpose. On the other hand, LED-based solid-state lighting is commonly chosen as the modern indoor lighting source, and most of them have a dimming function by pulse width modulation. In this article, the performance evaluation method of DSSC under modulated illumination is studied. When the modulation frequency competes with the power-line frequency set to the measurement apparatus for the rejection of the error from the power-line, the mismatch between them causes serious fluctuation in current-voltage curves. The averaging induces another problem, noticeable hysteresis. Removing the mismatch between the two frequencies is found as the proper way to eliminate the fluctuation.

Keywords:

• Dye-sensitized solar cell
• indoor photovoltaics
• lighting flicker
• pulse width modulation
• solid-state lighting

Additional information

Funding

This work was partially supported by JSPS KAKENHI [grant number JP18K04241].