Abstract
Deposition of nanocrystalline TiO 2 coating at low temperature is becoming more attractive due to the possibility for continuous roll production of the coating for assembly lines of dye-sensitized solar cell (DSC) at a low cost. In this study, porous nano-TiO 2 coating was deposited by vacuum cold spraying (VCS) at room temperature on a conducting glass substrate using commercial P25 nanocrystalline TiO 2 powder. The microstructure of TiO 2 coating was characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and nitrogen adsorption test. A commercial dye (N719) was adsorbed on the surface of TiO 2 particles within the coating to assemble a DSC. The cell performance was evaluated by employing simulated solar light at an intensity of 100 mW/cm 2. The results showed that TiO 2 coating was deposited by the agglomerates of nano-TiO 2 powders. The Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) test of the as-sprayed TiO 2 coating yielded a porosity of 49% and an average pore size of 17 nm. The assembled solar cell yielded a short-circuit current density of 7.3 mA/cm 2 and an energy conversion efficiency of 2.4%. The test results indicate that VCS was a promising method to deposit nanocrystalline TiO 2 coatings at low temperature applied to DSCs.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 893-897 |
| Number of pages | 5 |
| Journal | Journal of Thermal Spray Technology |
| Volume | 16 |
| Issue number | 5-6 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Dec 2007 |
Keywords
- Agglomerates
- Dye-sensitized solar cell
- Nanocrystalline material
- Porosity
- TiO
- Vacuum cold spray