ABSTRACT
A novel fiber-shaped dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) based on an all-carbon electrode is presented, where low-cost, highly-stable, and biocompatible carbon materials are applied to both the photoanode and the counter electrode. The fibrous carbon-based photoanode has a core-shell structure, with carbon fiber core used as conductive substrate to collect carriers and sensitized porous TiO(2) film as shell to harvest light effectively. The highly catalytic all-carbon counter electrode is made from ink carbon coatings and carbon fiber substrate. Results show that the open circuit voltage can be largely improved through engineering at the carbon fiber/TiO(2) interface. An optimized diameter of the photoanode results in an efficiency of 1.9%. It is the first demonstration of efficient DSSCs based on all-carbon electrodes, and the devices are totally free from TCOs or any other expensive electrode materials. Also, this type of solar cell is significant in obtaining bio-friendly all-carbon photovoltaics suitable for large-scale production.
ABSTRACT
A high-efficiency dye-sensitized solar cell prototype has been designed and fabricated, in which the working electrode and counter electrode are in direct contact and singly twisted. The cell is sealed in a capillary. In this solar cell configuration, the area ratio between the counter and working electrode is extremely low which allows the independent adjustment of electrolyte volume and the distance between counter electrode and photo-anode. Also it is more easily sealed compared to planar solar cell. The effects of TiO(2) film thickness, twisted pitch of counter electrode and length of device have been investigated. Our results indicate that this novel configuration has demonstrated excellent modularization function, three dimensional light harvesting capacities and the relative independence of incident light angles due to the symmetry structure. The power conversion efficiency of one cell of 9.5 cm in length can reach up to 5.41% at standard test condition (100 mW cm(-2)) and the power output may double under intense diffuse illumination. As far as we know, this is the longest and most efficient fiber-shaped dye-sensitized solar cell consisting of liquid electrolyte. The longer the fiber-shaped solar cell is, the more suitable it is for woven solar power textile if it is encapsulated in transparent flexible plastic capillary.
ABSTRACT
Two novel spiro-configured ter(arylene-ethynylene) derivatives, TSF-Cz and TSF-F, have been designed and synthesized using spiro(fluorene-9,9'-xanthene) (SFX) as building blocks, introducing a hole-transporting carbazole and a fluorene chromophore as the peripheral functional group into the backbone through an oxygen atom. The two well-defined oligomers possess good solubility, film-forming quality, and high T(g) 's at 140 and 126 °C, respectively. In addition, these oligomers exhibit blue photoluminescence (PL) emission both in solution and solid states. The double-layered devices fabricated using the two materials as the emitter show a sky-blue emission with a brightness and a current efficiency of 7 613 cd · m(-2) and 1.11 cd · A(-1) for TSF-Cz, and 1 507 cd · m(-2) and 0.36 cd · A(-1) for TSF-F, respectively.
ABSTRACT
Application of a hydrostatic pressure in the range of 1-650 atm boosted photoluminescence and electroluminescence of hexaphenylsilole by approximately 10 and approximately 73%, respectively, due to the suppression of intramolecular rotations and/or the increase in carrier injection, offering a helpful mechanistic insight into the intriguing phenomenon of aggregation-induced emission.