Influence of film thickness of photoanode on dye sensitized solar cell performance

Solar energy is a potential candidate to fulfill the rapidly increasing energy demands of future generation. Owing to this increasing demand, high efficiency solar cells stand an area of intense research. Dye Sensitized Solar Cells have attracted lot of recognition and is considered as a promising upcoming technology, which can compete with silicon based solar cells, owing to its intrinsic cost reduction potential, relatively modest production technology and its versatility. The efficiency parameter of a cell is governed by the adsorption of dye molecules, which depends on the thickness of the semiconducting layer. This paper emphasizes on the effect of thickness of the TiO2 layer of DSSC on its conversion efficiency by means of spin coating and Doctor blade techniques. The photo voltaic parameters were studied and compared with the thickness of the fabricated devices, measured using ellipsometry. It is found that the device fabricated using spin coating technique with single layer have relatively higher efficiency (about 2.53 %). This work enabled us to know the role of thickness in the efficiency of DSSC.