Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell by Plasma Spray

This paper aims to scale up Dye-sensitized Solar Cell (DSSC) production using a commonly available industrial material – stainless steel - and industrial plasma equipment. A working DSSC electrode formed by (1) coating titania nanotube (TiO2 NT) film on 304 stainless steel substrate using a plasma spray technique; then, (2) filling the nano-pores of the TiO2 NT film using a TiF4 sol-gel method. A DSSC device consists of an anode absorbed photosensitive dye (N3), a transparent conductive cathode with platinum (Pt) nano-catalytic particles adhered to its surface, and an electrolytic solution sealed between the anode and the transparent conductive cathode. The photo-current conversion efficiency of the DSSC sample was tested under an AM 1.5 Solar Simulator. The sample has a short current (Isc) of 0.83 mA cm-2, open voltage (Voc) of 0.81V, filling factor (FF) of 0.52, and conversion efficiency (η) of 2.18% on a 0.16 cm2 DSSC work-piece.

Optimization and Determination of Process Parameters in Thin Film SOI Photo-BJMOSFET

We propose photo-BJMOSFET (Bipolar Junction Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor) fabricated on SOI film. ITO film is adopted in the device as gate electrode to reduce light absorption. I-V characteristics of photo-BJMOSFET obtained in dark (dark current) and under 570nm illumination (photo current) are studied furthermore to achieve high photo-to-dark-current contrast ratio. Two variables in the calculation were the channel length and the thickness of the film which were set equal to six different values, i.e., L=2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12μm and three different values, i.e., dsi =100, 200 and 300nm, respectively. The results indicate that the greatest photo-to-dark-current contrast ratio is achieved with L=10μm and dsi=200 nm at VGK=0.6V.

Fabrication of Carbon Doped TiO2 Nanotubes via In-situ Anodization of Ti-foil in Acidic Medium

Highly ordered TiO2 nanotube (TNT) arrays were fabricated onto a pre-treated titanium foil by anodic oxidation with a voltage of 20V in phosphoric acid/sodium fluoride electrolyte. A pretreatment of titanium foil involved washing with acetone, isopropanol, ethanol and deionized water. Carbon doped TiO2 nanotubes (C-TNT) was fabricated 'in-situ' with the same method in the presence of polyvinyl alcohol and urea as carbon sources. The affects of polyvinyl alcohol concentration and oxidation time on the composition, morphology and structure of the C-TN were studied by FE-SEM, EDX and XRD techniques. FESEM images of the nanotubes showed uniform arrays of C-TNTs. The density and microstructures of the nanotubes were greatly affected by the content of PVA. The introduction of the polyvinyl alcohol into the electrolyte increases the amount of C content inside TiO2 nanotube arrays uniformly. The influence of carbon content on the photo-current of C-TNT was investigated and the I-V profiles of the nanotubes were established. The preliminary results indicated that the 'in-situ' doping technique produced a superior quality nanotubes compared to post doping techniques.