Analysis and assessment of dye-sensitized solar cell at different materials parameters and environmental conditions

• Published in: International journal of energy research Vol. 40; no. 8; pp. 1093 - 1104
• Main Authors: Zouhri, Khalid, Lee, Seong-Young
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bognor Regis Blackwell Publishing Ltd 25-06-2016; Hindawi Limited
• Subjects: diffusion coefficient; DSSC; efficiency; energy; Energy management; Exergy; light-intensity; Mathematical models; Photovoltaic cells; porosity; Solar cells; temperature; Thickness; Thin films; Titanium dioxide
• ISSN: 0363-907X; 1099-114X
• DOI: 10.1002/er.3503

Summary
The dye‐sensitized solar cell (DSSC) provides a clean, renewable, and cheap energy source. Since the beginning of the 1990s, DSSC has seen enormous development because of an increase in world energy consumption and the concerns about the environmental impact associated with combustion of fossil fuels. However, the efficiency of the DSSC to be a competitive energy source has not been achieved. In this work, we analyzed the effect of various materials parameters and environmental conditions on the performance of DSSC. To maintain the optimum performance for DSSCs and to enhance the energy and exergy efficiency in practical application environments, it is recommended to have the porous thin film TiO2 at porosity of 0.40, thin film thickness of porous TiO2 at 0.0005 cm, thickness of redox electrolyte at 0.0002 cm, diffusion coefficient of 0.0002 cm2 s−1, electron diffusion length of 0.0013 cm, and operating temperature of 300 K with light intensity of 100 mW cm−2. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A model is created in order to investigate the effect of different materials' parameters and operating conditions on the exergy efficiency of dye‐sensitized solar cell and the I‐V characteristics. The results show that the anode materials parameters' and operating conditions of the device components such as porosity, thin film thickness of porous TiO2, thickness of redox electrolyte, diffusion coefficient, temperature, electron diffusion length, and light‐intensity have various effects on the exergy and energy efficiency of dye‐sensitized solar cell.