Electroanalytical investigation of the losses during interfacial charge transport in dye-sensitized solar cell

• Published in: Solar energy 2016-05, Vol.129, p.207-216
• Main Authors: Yadav, Pankaj, Pandey, Kavita, Tripathi, Brijesh, Jayaweera, P.V.V., Kaneko, S., Kumar, Manoj
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Current–voltage characteristics; Dye-sensitized solar cell; Dyes; Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy; Perovskite; Photovoltaic cells; Recombination kinetics; Solar energy; Spectrum analysis
• ISSN: 0038-092X; 1471-1257
• DOI: 10.1016/j.solener.2016.02.004

•Electroanalytical measurements to determine recombination parameters.•The current–voltage characteristics reconstructed using impedance parameters.•The analytical model provides an insight of electric power loss mechanism.•Presented analysis may help to explore other energy conversion devices. In the present article, the direct current and alternating current characterization techniques are employed to investigate the losses during interfacial charge transport in dye-sensitized solar cell (area: 3.78cm2) having a power conversion efficiency of 4.32%. The analysis of current–voltage characteristics depicts that the loss in photocurrent density is about 1–1.5% at low forward bias, ∼8% at knee voltage and ∼79% at open circuit voltage. The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurement leads to the direct determination of recombination resistance, chemical capacitance, charge transport resistance and double layer capacitance. The current–voltage characteristics obtained from the impedance parameters allows separating the contributions of different resistive processes on the overall conversion efficiency. The experimental results along with the analytical model provide an insight into the electric power loss mechanism, which is useful for analyzing performance of other upcoming devices with a similar working mechanism like perovskite sensitized solar cells.