Developing dye sensitized solar cells with polymer electrolytes

We have fabricated dye sensitized solar cells and improved their efficiency. The working electrodes were made of Al-doped and Cu-doped TiO₂ nanotubes by anodization process. We also prepared 2 polymers: the poly acrylonitrile-co-styrene and polyethylene oxide to compare efficiency of these polymer electrolytes. X-ray diffraction (XRD) was used to study the microstructure of the titania nanotubes, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to study structural morphology, and UV-visible spectroscopy optical property was employed to determine the optical property. The effect of Al-doping and Cu-doping on the efficiency of the solar cells was investigated. The conversion efficiencies of poly (acrylonitrile-co-styrene), Poly(ethylene oxide), Al-doped TiO₂ and Cu-doped TiO₂ were 0.184, 0.121, 0.008 and 0.169 respectively for irradiation of 800 W/m². (paper)