Effect of deoxycholic acid on performance of dye-sensitized solar cell based on black dye

Abstract

The effect of coadsorption with deoxycholic acid (DCA) on the performance of dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) based on [(C₄H₉)₄N]₃[Ru(Htcterpy)(NCS)₃](tcterpy= 4,4′,4″-tricarboxy-2,2′:6′,2″-terpyridine), a so-called black dye, had been investigated. Results showed that the coadsorption of DCA with the black dye results in significant improvement in the photocurrent and mild increase in the photovoltage, which leads to an enhancement of overall power conversion efficiency by 9%. The enhancement of photocurrent was attributed to the increased efficiency of charge collection and/or electron injection. The coadsorption with DCA suppressed charge recombination and thus improved open-circuit photovoltage.

Keywords

dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) / coadsorption / black dye

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 20971025, 90922004, and 50903020), the Shanghai Pujiang Project (No. 09PJ1401300), and the Shanghai Non-Governmental International Cooperation Program (No. 10530705300), National Basic Research Program of China (No. 2011CB933302), Shanghai Leading Academic Discipline Project (No. B108), the Project sponsored by SRF for ROCS, SEM, and Jiangsu Major Program (No. BY2010147).

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