Electrical Modeling of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells for Improving the Overall Photoelectric Conversion Efficiency

Abstract

An electrical model of dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) is derived on continuity and transport equations for all the four charged species i.e. electrons, iodide ions (I-), triiodide ions (I3-) and cations. The device model comprises of a pseudo-homogeneous active layer, where solar photovoltaic effect including both diffusion of electrons in nanoporous TiO2 layer as well as ions in electrolyte occur, and a bulk electrolyte layer, where only ions diffuse take place. The distribution of the electrons, iodide and tri-iodide ions as function of the pseudo-homogeneous active layer thickness of the DSSC under both the open-circuit and short-circuit operation conditions were performed. Parametric studies were conducted to analyze (J–V) characteristic of the DSSC with three different sets of porosity and also for different sets of TiO2 layer thicknesses.