Characterisations and DSSC efficiency test of TiO₂ nano-films formed by filtered cathodic vacuum arc deposition
by C. Aramwit; L.D. Yu; L. Gregoratti; S. Choopun; S. Intarasiri; D. Bootkul; U. Tippawan
International Journal of Nanotechnology (IJNT), Vol. 14, No. 1/2/3/4/5/6, 2017

Abstract: For photovoltaic applications in dye-sensitised solar cells (DSSC), used as a wide band semiconductor layer, titanium dioxide (TiO₂) nano-films were formed by the filtered cathodic vacuum arc deposition (FCVAD) technique using Ti as the cathode and controlled oxygen (O₂) gas inlet under varied deposition and post-deposition annealing conditions. The deposition conditions included the O₂ pressure as the key parameter and others such as deposition time and bias. The work was aimed at investigating the FCVAD condition effect on the TiO₂ film characteristics and thus the solar cell efficiency. The formed films were characterised using optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), Raman spectroscopy and scanning photoemission microscopy (SPEM) techniques. All the characterisations revealed that the film transparency increased and thickness decreased to a nanoscale with increasing of the O₂ pressure, the transparent deposited films contained stoichiometric titanium and oxygen under the medium O₂ pressure, the as-deposited films were TiO₂ containing some rutile but without anatase, and the annealing improved the film quality by introducing anatase and increasing the Ti-oxide. Test of the films for the DSSC-photovoltaic property efficiency showed that the efficiency of using the annealed films was 10⁴ times that of using the as-deposited films, indicating the crucial significance of the anatase.

Online publication date: Tue, 21-Feb-2017

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