Solid-State Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells Using Mesoporous TiO₂ Films Fabricated with Amphiphilic Rubbery Random Copolymer

Abstract:

An amphiphilic copolymer, PLMA-POEM, was synthesized with hydrophobic poly (lauryl methacrylate) (PLMA) and hydrophilic poly (oxyethylene methacrylate) (POEM), which is cheap and rubbery state. The copolymers were characterized by using Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy (FT-IR), ¹H-nuclear magnetic resonance (¹H-NMR) and gel permeation spectroscopy (GPC). The copolymers were used as sacrificial agent to fabricate anatase mesoporous TiO₂ films and, by varying amounts of TiO₂ particles, polymer molecular weight (MW), concentration of the copolymers, various mesoporous TiO₂ films were fabricated. With a low MW polymer, the TiO₂ formed a worm-like structure with smaller pores, whereas an aggregated honeycomb-like TiO₂ with bimodal pores was obtained for the high MW system, characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), grazing incidence small-angle X-ray scattering (GI-SAXS) and N₂ adsorptiondesorption measurement. With 2μm-thick TiO₂ film, efficiency was 4.2% due to better pore filling of the solid electrolyte and improved light scattering properties. By using a layer-by-layer method, the efficiency was further improved to 5.0% at 7μm thickness.

• Periodical: Advanced Materials Research (Volume 853)
• Pages: 297-301
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.853.297
• Online since: December 2013
• Authors: Dong Jun Kim, Sung Hoon Ahn, Dong Kyu Roh, Jong Hak Kim*
• Keywords: Amphiphilic Random Copolymer, Mesoporous TiO₂, Solid-State Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell

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