Study on Preparation of Flexible Semiconductor Electrode for Dye-sensitized Solar Cells by EPD

In recent years, the development of DSSC produced considerable research interest, including improving efficiency, packaging and flexible possibilities. Flexible possibility has great potential for all kinds of applications. Researches on the bendability of the solar cell thin sheets are mostly focus on the making the soft substrate or electrodes. Previous studies showed that coating method of TiO2 semiconductor electrodes cracked after bending. This phenomenon makes the DSSC efficiency and lifetime substantially decline. The electrophoretic deposition (EPD) technique with a wide range of novel applications in the processing of advanced materials and coatings, has recently gained increasing interest both in academia and industrial sector not only because of the high versatility of its use with different materials and their combinations but also because of its cost-effectiveness requiring simple apparatus. This study used a flexible conductive material (ITO-PEN) as substrate. The semiconductor electrode was prepared by eletrophoresis deposition (EPD) method. After bending test, we observe the morphology and electrical properties of semiconductor electrodes. The photocurrent-voltage characteristics of assembled the DSSC were measured by Luzchem Solar Simulator (standard AM 1.5). Results of flexible DSSC indicated that feature enables the flexible solar cells after bending to avoid fragmentation of semiconductor electrodes, and the efficiency doesn’t decrease.