Fully printable transparent monolithic solid-state dye-sensitized solar cell with mesoscopic indium tin oxide counter electrode

Abstract

We present a new transparent monolithic mesoscopic solid-state dye-sensitized solar cell based on trilamellar films of mesoscopic TiO₂ nanocrystalline photoanode, a ZrO₂ insulating layer and an indium tin oxide counter electrode (ITO-CE), which were screen-printed layer by layer on a single substrate. When the thickness of the ITO-CE was optimized to 2.1 μm, this very simple and fully printable solid-state DSSC with D102 dye and spiro-OMeTAD hole transport materials presents efficiencies of 1.73% when irradiated from the front side and 1.06% when irradiated from the rear side under a standard simulated sunlight condition (AM 1.5 Global, 100 mW cm⁻²). Higher parameters could be expected with a better transparent mesoscopic counter electrode and hole conductor for the printable monolithic mesoscopic solid-state DSSC.