Thin-film fabrication techniques in dye-sensitized solar cells for energy harvesting
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Date
2024
Authors
Journal Title
Sustainable Green Catalytic Processes
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
wiley
Abstract
From the last few decades, dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have emerged out as economical and reliable substitutes for energy source owing to their simple preparation, cheap cost, low toxicity, and competitive efficiency. The key components of DSSCs include the semiconducting thin film, sensitizer, redox couple, and counter electrode. The photoanode, which is made of a semiconducting thin film with a dye adsorbed on it, plays a crucial role in DSSCs, and its morphology depends on the deposition techniques used. Various established physical and chemical coating/deposition methods are promising for attaining high-quality thin films for DSSC fabrication. The morphology and particle size of the thin films strongly depend on the deposition techniques employed. Surface and interfacial effects significantly impact the whole performance of these films, leading to improved properties and characteristics compared to bulk materials. Highly functionalized thin films have their benefits when used as photoanodes in DSSCs, as the boosted functional properties of materials can be exploited at the nanoscale level. There are several techniques for depositing thin films, including physical, chemical, and colloidal routes. Some widely used methods include spray pyrolysis, sol-gel, plasma spray, electrophoretic deposition, screen printing, and dip coating. Vacuum deposition techniques such as magnetron sputtering and pulsed laser deposition are successfully established in the thinfilm coating industry due to the high quality and reproducibility of the fabricated thin films. While these techniques often require expensive equipment and complex experimental setups, they offer the advantage of producing thin and dense films. Colloidal, doctor blade, and dip coating techniques are advantageous because of their low cost and simplified experimental setup and equipment. These techniques produce thin films with controlled structures and particle size distributions. However, they may be prone to issues such as cracks, pores, or layer separation, which can be overcome by repeating the coating process several times intermittently. Sol-gel and slurry methods are extensively used to fabricate nanocrystalline thin films in DSSCs due to their lower cost than gas-phase methods. However, the meager stability of the precursors against hydrolysis remains a concern. The SILAR (successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction) method is another solution-based thin-film deposition technique, a modified version of chemical bath deposition. The resulting thin films exhibit improved grain structure orientation. In short, various deposition techniques are employed to fabricate thin films for DSSCs, each with its advantages and challenges. Researchers continue to explore and optimize these techniques/methods to improve the overall performance of DSSCs. � 2024 Scrivener Publishing LLC. All rights reserved.
Description
Keywords
Colloidal process, Gas-phase processes, Liquid-phase processes, PLD, SILAR, Sputtering, Thin films