Properties of woridng electrodes with the addition of nano diamonds addition in dye sensitized solar cells

We prepared a Ti02 blocking layer containing 0~0.5 wt% nano diamonds (NDs) to increase the effective surface area of working electrodes in a dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC). The result was a DSSC with a 0.45 cm² active area of a glass/FTO/blocking layer (Ti0₂ with NDs)/TiO₂/dye/electrolyte/lOO nm Pt/glass structure. The microstructure of the blocking layer was examined by optical microscope, FESEM, and AFM. UV-VIS-NIR was used to determine the optical absorbance of the working electrodes containing NDs. The photovoltaic properties for the ND added DSSC, such as short circuit current density, open circuit voltage, fill factor, energy conversion efficiency, and impedance, were checked using a solar simulator and potentiostat. Microstructure characterization showed that the NDs were evenly dispersed in the blocking layer. The absorbance in the visible light regime increased as the ND content increased. The photovoltaic properties indicated that energy conversion efficiency increased from 3.53% to 4.96% with 0 wt% and 0.4 wt% ND addition. This was due to the decreased interface resistance of the working electrode and the increased surface area and shunt resistance of the blocking layer resulting from the addition of the NDs. The DSSC with 0.5 wt% NDs was less efficient due to a reduction of the effective electron transport area caused by excess NDs. Our results suggest that we can improve the efficiency of a DSSC by proper addition of NDs into the blocking layer.