Metal substrate mounted flexible dye sensitised semiconductor solar cells
Lead Research Organisation:
Imperial College London
Department Name: Chemistry
Abstract
More solar energy falls on the Earth's surface every day than the whole of humankind would consume in 27 years (i.e. 10,000 times our needs). To harness this potential and provide a reliable and economic carbon free source of electricity is however a non trivial problem. Dye sensitised semiconductor cells (DSSCs) based on sensitised nanocrystalline titania sandwiched between transparent conducting oxide glass have been developed with efficiencies of up to 11%.The current barriers to DSSCs are cost, manufacturability and durability. Low cost photovoltaic (PV) coatings in the modern built environment promise great financial/environmental benefits, potentially competing with mainstream energy sources. Our novel approach will study dye-sensitised titania photovoltaics in polymer coatings on strip steel, providing a large area solar collector. Our aim is breakthrough low cost PV surfaces, using cost effective materials and rapid/continuous coil coating manufacturing. Corus Colors coil coating facilities produce 1,000,000 T/yr of painted steel products; ? of which ends up on roofs. This equates to approximately 100 million m2 of organic coated strip steel (OCS) roofs. The average amount of UK solar irradiation is 900 kW.hr/m2/yr. If the light-to-electricity efficiency of the PV coating is 6%, 100 million m2 of PV coated roofs with an integrated photovoltaic capacity would produce 5400 GW.hr of electricity. This equates to 600 MW of conventional power capacity or over 2400 MW of a renewable source such as onshore wind power. Considering that this amount of roofing is added to the UK annually, the opportunity for large scale PV energy production is very significant. The continuous fabrication of DSSC's on strip steel raises significant new scientific challenges. These are broadly in four key areas: (1) developing strongly adherent and active sensitised nanostructured titania layers on metal substrates suitable for high speed application, (2) developing a suitable electrolyte which eliminates volatile components and associated sealing issues, (3) optimising collection efficiency and counter electrode design and (4) durability and compatibility of materials to ensure a reasonable operational life in external exposure, including in particular the development of suitable barrier layers to prevent corrosion of the steel substrate. The project brings together leading researchers in the field of dye sensitised solar cells (Imperial) and photoelectrochemistry (Bath), materials deposition and surface chemistry (Bangor) and steel coating development (Swansea). Critical to the success of this ambitious programme is the support of the World's second largest producer of coil coated materials, Corus Colors. The assembled partnership has the capability to deliver a unique solution to cost-effective passive generation of electricity from the walls and roofs of buildings and provide novel mechanistic insights into the fundamental photoelectrochemistry of metal mounted DSSCs.
Publications
Anderson A
(2011)
Quantifying Regeneration in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells
in The Journal of Physical Chemistry C
Anderson A
(2010)
Simultaneous Transient Absorption and Transient Electrical Measurements on Operating Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells: Elucidating the Intermediates in Iodide Oxidation
in The Journal of Physical Chemistry C
Barnes P
(2008)
Electron Injection Efficiency and Diffusion Length in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells Derived from Incident Photon Conversion Efficiency Measurements
in The Journal of Physical Chemistry C
Barnes P
(2010)
Electron Recombination Kinetics and the Analysis of Collection Efficiency and Diffusion Length Measurements in Dye Sensitized Solar Cells
in The Journal of Physical Chemistry C
Barnes P
(2011)
Simulation and measurement of complete dye sensitised solar cells: including the influence of trapping, electrolyte, oxidised dyes and light intensity on steady state and transient device behaviour
in Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics
Barnes PR
(2011)
Factors controlling charge recombination under dark and light conditions in dye sensitised solar cells.
in Physical chemistry chemical physics : PCCP
Koops SE
(2009)
Parameters influencing the efficiency of electron injection in dye-sensitized solar cells.
in Journal of the American Chemical Society
Law C
(2010)
Water-based electrolytes for dye-sensitized solar cells.
in Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.)
Listorti A
(2010)
Zn(ii) versus Ru(ii) phthalocyanine-sensitised solar cells. A comparison between singlet and triplet electron injectors
in Energy & Environmental Science
Description | As detailed in project report from overall project PI Prof David Worsley |
Exploitation Route | taken up by SPECIFIC IKC in partnership with Corus Colours (now part of TATA Steel) |
Sectors | Chemicals Energy Manufacturing including Industrial Biotechology |
URL | http://www.specific.eu.com |
Description | As detailed in project report from PI Prof David Worsley |
First Year Of Impact | 2010 |
Sector | Chemicals,Electronics,Energy,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology |
Impact Types | Economic |
Description | Corus Colours |
Organisation | Tata Steel Europe |
Department | Tata Steel Colours |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Private |
Start Year | 2007 |