Title: The fabrication of solid state dye-sensitised solar cells with I2 doped CuI as the hole conductors

Authors: Nur Amalina Muhamad; Najwa Ezira Binti Mohamed Azhar; Mohd Hanapiah Abdullah; Musa Bin Mohamed Zahidi; Mohamad Rusop Mahmood

Addresses: Faculty of Electrical Engineering, NANO-ElecTronic Centre, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia ' Faculty of Electrical Engineering, NANO-ElecTronic Centre, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia ' Faculty of Electrical Engineering, NANO-ElecTronic Centre, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia ' Faculty of Electrical Engineering, NANO-ElecTronic Centre, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia ' Faculty of Electrical Engineering, NANO-ElecTronic Centre, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia; NANO SciTech Centre, Institute of Sciences, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia

Abstract: The fabrication (ss-DSSC) were done by employing the iodine doped CuI (I2:CuI) as the hole conductors. The hole conductor deposition was done by varying the I2:CuI weight in order to investigate its effect to the device performance. The brick-like structure with smooth faces and sharp edges were seen for the doped thin films. The high electrical resistivity of I2:CuI thin films were observed compared to the undoped CuI thin films which is caused by the surface traps create by iodine doping. The ss-DSSC fabricated with undoped CuI hole transport layer shows the highest efficiency of 1.05% which is in a good agreement with the resistivity value of CuI thin films. The cell fabricated with 40 mg I2:CuI shows the lowest conversion efficiency of 0.45%. The crystals size of CuI and its degree of crystallisation are greatly affect the solar cells performance.

Keywords: copper iodide; CuI; I2 dopant; nanomaterials; dye-sensitised solar cells; solid state DSSC; pore filling; iodine doping; hole conductors; thin films; electrical resistivity; nanotechnology; conversion efficiency; crystals size; crystallisation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMATEI.2015.069826

International Journal of Materials Engineering Innovation, 2015 Vol.6 No.1, pp.32 - 41

Published online: 12 Jun 2015 *

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