Bifacial Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells with Enhanced Light Scattering and Improved Power Conversion Efficiency under Full Sun and Indoor Light Conditions
Swetha Sasidharan, Sourava C. Pradhan, Anooja Jagadeesh, Balagopal N. Nair, Abdul Azeez Peer Mohamed, K. N. Narayanan Unni, Suraj Soman, Unnikrishnan Nair Saraswathy Hareesh
Abstract
Improved photovoltaic performance under full sun (100 mW cm–2) and indoor light (1000 lux, CFL) conditions were achieved in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) through surface texturing of TiO2 photoanodes. Herein, surface roughness/imprints in the TiO2 layer was introduced through fugitive inclusions of ZnO microflowers leading to enhanced light scattering without adversely affecting the transparency. These imprints thus created acted as scattering centers enhancing light absorption leading to a 13 and 85% improvement in the power conversion efficiency (PCE) under full sun and indoor light conditions, respectively. Detailed interfacial charge transfer studies were conducted to investigate the origin of variation in photovoltaic performance. Photoanode surface engineering led to the development of semi-transparent, bifacial DSSCs with the ability to work under both solar radiation and artificial/indoor lighting, enabling them to be used as facades for building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) applications.