Eco-Friendly Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells Based on Water-Electrolytes and Chlorophyll
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Department of New Energy Engineering, Seoul National University of Science & Technology, 232 Gongneung-ro, Nowon-gu, Seoul 01811, Korea
2
Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Seoul National University of Science & Technology, 232 Gongneung-ro, Nowon-gu, Seoul 01811, Korea
3
School of Integrative Engineering, Chung-Ang University, Seoul 06974, Korea
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editor: Federico Bella
Materials 2021, 14(9), 2150; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14092150
Received: 9 March 2021
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Revised: 10 April 2021
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Accepted: 21 April 2021
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Published: 23 April 2021
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Functional Soft Materials)
Organic solvents used for electrolytes of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) are generally not only toxic and explosive but also prone to leakage due to volatility and low surface tension. The representative dyes of DSSCs are ruthenium-complex molecules, which are expensive and require a complicated synthesis process. In this paper, the eco-friendly DSSCs were presented based on water-based electrolytes and a commercially available organic dye. The effect of aging time after the device fabrication and the electrolyte composition on the photovoltaic performance of the eco-friendly DSSCs were investigated. Plasma treatment of TiO2 was adopted to improve the dye adsorption as well as the wettability of the water-based electrolytes on TiO2. It turned out that the plasma treatment was an effective way of improving the photovoltaic performance of the eco-friendly DSSCs by increasing the efficiency by 3.4 times. For more eco-friendly DSSCs, the organic-synthetic dye was replaced by chlorophyll extracted from spinach. With the plasma treatment, the efficiency of the eco-friendly DSSCs based on water-electrolytes and chlorophyll was comparable to those of the previously reported chlorophyll-based DSSCs with non-aqueous electrolytes.
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Keywords:
dye-sensitized solar cells; aqueous electrolyte; chlorophyll; plasma treatment; eco-friendly devices
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MDPI and ACS Style
Kim, J.-H.; Park, S.-Y.; Lim, D.-H.; Lim, S.-Y.; Choi, J.; Koo, H.-J. Eco-Friendly Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells Based on Water-Electrolytes and Chlorophyll. Materials 2021, 14, 2150. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14092150
AMA Style
Kim J-H, Park S-Y, Lim D-H, Lim S-Y, Choi J, Koo H-J. Eco-Friendly Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells Based on Water-Electrolytes and Chlorophyll. Materials. 2021; 14(9):2150. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14092150
Chicago/Turabian StyleKim, Ji-Hye, Sung-Yoon Park, Dong-Hyuk Lim, So-Young Lim, Jonghoon Choi, and Hyung-Jun Koo. 2021. "Eco-Friendly Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells Based on Water-Electrolytes and Chlorophyll" Materials 14, no. 9: 2150. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14092150
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