In situ Micro Raman investigation of DSSC degradation mechanism under accelerated thermal stress

Barry Breen^a, Izhak Barzilay^a, Jiangang Hu^a^,^b, Polykarpos Falaras^c, Athanasios Kontos^c, Maria Bidikoudi^c, Harry Georgiou^c

^a3GSolar Photovoltaics Ltd.

^bBar-Ilan University, Israel, Ramat Gan, 52900, Israel, Israel

^cNCSR Demokritos, Division of Physical Chemistry, 153 10 Aghia Paraskevi Attikis, Athens, Greece

International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics
Proceedings of International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics 2015 (HOPV15)

Roma, Italy, 2015 May 11th - 13th

Organizer: Filippo De Angelis

Poster, Jiangang Hu, 421
Publication date: 5th February 2015

Dye Sensitized Solar Cells have been intensively studied for over more than two decades, thus achieving high power conversion efficiencies and low cost. However, in order to fulfill the market requirements, these 3^rd generation photovoltaic devices must confirm increased stability and lifetime, characteristics that still remain the critical issues impeding their practical application and commercialization ^[1]. In addition, the degradation mechanisms are not very clear and the corresponding activation energies must be estimated. Here we are investigating the behavior of Dye Sensitized Solar Cells from 3GSolar Photovoltaics, which have shown stability during nearly five years of actual outdoor exposure and over 25 years stability implied by accelerated testing. These are industrial cells with an aperture area over 200 cm² that were subjected to an accelerated thermal test (under 85 °C) in the dark ^[2]. The stressed cells were characterized by in-situ micro-Raman spectroscopy assisted with Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (IES) over the sequential stressing time. Following such an accelerated life test, a limited but fast degradation of electrical performance was observed in the first few hundred hours. The analysis of the results indicated that the degradation is mainly occurring at the TiO₂/dye/electrolyte interface, which is possibly responsible for the drop in the I-V performance. Moreover, the different degradation paths were elucidated and the corresponding activation energies were determined.

[1] Falaras Polycarpos, Likodimos Vlassis, Stergiopoulos Thomas, Harikisun Ravi, Desilvestro Johann, Tulloch Gavin, The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 113 ( 2009) 9412–9422. [2] Athanassios G. Kontos, Thomas Stergiopoulos, Vlassis Likodimos, Damion Milliken, Hans Desilvesto, Gavin Tulloch, Polycarpos Falaras, The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 117 (2013) 8636-8646.

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