Title: The effect of ethyl cellulose on TiO₂ pastes for DSSCs application

Authors: Hsiou-Hsuan Wang; Chaochin Su; Chung-Ying Wu; Hon-Bin Tsai; Wen-Ren Li

Addresses: Institute of Organic and Polymeric Materials, National Taipei University of Technology, 1, Sec. 3, Chung-Hsiao E. Rd., Taipei 106, Taiwan; Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, National Ilan University, 1, Sec.1, Shen-Lung Road, I-Lan 260, Taiwan ' Institute of Organic and Polymeric Materials, National Taipei University of Technology, 1, Sec. 3, Chung-Hsiao E. Rd., Taipei 106, Taiwan ' Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, National Ilan University, 1, Sec.1, Shen-Lung Road, I-Lan 260, Taiwan ' Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, National Ilan University, 1, Sec.1, Shen-Lung Road, I-Lan 260, Taiwan ' Department of Chemistry, National Central University, 300, Jhongda Road, Jhongdi City 320, Taiwan

Abstract: Ethyl cellulose (EC)-based TiO₂ pastes were prepared in order to fabricate flat and crack-free TiO₂ films employing screen-printing technique. Pure anatase TiO₂ was synthesised via hydrothermal process using titanium (IV) n-butoxide as Ti-precursor and peptised by acetic acid. The as-prepared TiO₂sol was employed in making a series of pastes with various weight ratios of ethyl cellulose for screen-printing the TiO₂ electrode for dye sensitised solar cells (DSSCs). The printed TiO₂ electrodes were characterised by surface profile meter, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The printed TiO₂ electrode observed under the micro-scale condition exhibited a porous and crack-free structure. After the DSSCs performance measurement, the amount of dye adsorbed on TiO₂ electrodes was determined by UV-vis. The DSSCs made from paste with 5.82 wt % of EC demonstrated a high energy conversion efficiency of 7.17% with J_sc = 14.86 mA/cm², V_OC = 0.75 V and FF = 0.64 under the AM1.5 with an illumination of 100 mW/cm².

Keywords: ethyl cellulose; DSSCs; dye sensitised solar cells; hydrothermal; screen printing; nanostructures; TiO2 pastes; titanium dioxide; titania; nanotechnology.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNT.2014.065140

International Journal of Nanotechnology, 2014 Vol.11 No.12, pp.1138 - 1147

Published online: 06 Feb 2015 *

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