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USA PASSION DEVELOPMENT

CONFERENCE PROCEEDING

EISBN: XXXXX

2nd International Conference of Electrical,

Electronic & Optical Engineering

(ICEEOE 2019)

0

1

2nd International Conference of Electrical, Electronic & Optical

Engineering

(ICEEOE 2019)

20TH TO 21ST JULY 2019

PACIFIC REGENCY HOTEL SUITES,

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA

Copyright © 2019

USA Passion Development Sdn Bhd (1279049-D)

No. 30-3A,Tingkat 4, Jalan Putra 8, Taman Putra Kajang,

43000 Kajang, Selangor.

All rights reserved. No part of this proceeding may be reproduced or

transmitted in any form or by any process without the prior written

permission of the publisher, except for the inclusion of brief quotations

for Review.

EISBN : XXXXX

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EDITORIAL BOARD

EDITOR IN CHIEF

Prof. Dato' Sri Dr. Ashgar Ali bin Ali Mohamed

Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Malaysia (International Islamic University of Malaysia)

EDITOR

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mohd. Faizal Mohd Isa

Universiti Utara Malaysia (North University of Malaysia)

CO-EDITOR

Dr. Zul Ariff Bin Abdul Latiff

Universiti Malaysia Kelantan (University of Kelantan Malaysia)

MANAGING EDITOR

Siti Syaiedatul Assilla Binti Azian

USA Passion Development Sdn. Bhd.

CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE

INVESTIGATION OF THE EFFECT OF CHENODEOXYCHOLIC ACID

ADDITIVE ON THE PHOTOVOLTAIC PERFORMANCE OF DYE-

SENSITIZED SOLAR CELL & INTRODUCTION

4

METHODOLOGY, RESULTS & DISCUSSION 5

CONCLUSION & MAIN REFERENCES 7

2ND INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF ELECTRICAL, ELECTRONIC & OPTICAL ENGINEERING (ICEEOE 2019)

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INVESTIGATION OF THE EFFECT OF CHENODEOXYCHOLIC ACID ADDITIVE ON THE PHOTOVOLTAIC PERFORMANCE OF DYE-

SENSITIZED SOLAR CELL

Mian-En Yeoh1, Benedict Wen-Cheun Au1, Zi-Neng Ng1, Kah-Yoong Chan*1,2

1Centre for Advanced Devices and Systems, Faculty of Engineering, Multimedia University, 63100 Cyberjaya, Selangor, Malaysia. 2Research Institute for Digital Lifestyle, Multimedia University, 63100 Cyberjaya, Selangor, Malaysia *Corresponding author: kychan@mmu.edu.my

Abstract: Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) are regarded as one of the prospective renewable energy sources owing to its low cost and competitive efficiency among all the photovoltaic technologies. Ongoing efforts have been devoted to the optimization of various DSSC components in order to further improve the DSSC efficiency. In the present work, the effect of chenodeoxycholic acid (CDCA) as additive or co-adsorbent in N719 dye solution on the photovoltaic performance of DSSC was investigated. The optimized DSSC performance was obtained with the addition of 15 mM CDCA, which led to improved DSSC efficiency from 4.17% (without CDCA) to 4.91%. The improvement can be attributed to the hindered formation of dye aggregation and reduced electron recombination. Keywords: Dye-sensitized solar cell, chenodeoxycholic acid, additive, co-adsorben INTRODUCTION Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) represent a promising alternative to conventional silicon-based

photovoltaic devices due to its low cost and high efficiency (O’Regan and Grätzel 1991). The operating

principle of DSSC can be summarized as follows. Upon exposure to the sunlight, the photo-excited dye

molecules transfer the electron from its highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) to the lowest occupied

molecular orbital (LUMO). It is then followed by the injection of the electrons into the conduction band of the

semiconducting metal oxide, typically titanium dioxide (TiO2). The dye molecules are oxidized after the

electron injection, and is reduced to its ground state through the electron transfer from an electrolyte

containing the redox system. The injected electrons diffuse across the TiO2 matrix to reach the transparent

conducting oxide (TCO) substrate, typically fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) glass. The electrons then flow

through the external load and arrive at the counter electrode. The oxidized redox system is regenerated by

the electrons collected at the counter electrode, and hence completing the whole cycle.

In order to further improve the photovoltaic performance of DSSC, different types of additives have been

tested as co-adsorbent in dye solution, such as 1‐decylphosphonic acid (DPA) (P. Wang et al. 2003),

deoxycholic acid (DCA) (Wang et al. 2007), hexadecylmalonic acid (HMDA) (Peng Wang et al. 2003) and

chenodeoxycholic acid (CDCA) (Jungsuttiwong et al. 2017). CDCA is the most popular among all additives,

which has been proven to improve the DSSC performance based on various types of organic dyes such as

squaraine dye (Yum et al. 2008), porphyrin dye (Jungsuttiwong et al. 2017; Lu et al. 2009), triphenylamine

dye (Jiang et al. 2010) and phenothiazine dye (Li et al. 2011). Nevertheless, the effect of CDCA on the

DSSC based on inorganic dyes was rarely reported. In this work, different concentrations (0 mM, 5 mM, 10

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mM, 15 mM, 20 mM and 25mM) of CDCA were added to the inorganic ruthenium-based N719 dye, and the

resultant DSSCs were characterized to investigate the effect of CDCA on the current-voltage characteristics

of DSSCs.

EXPERIMENTAL WORKS

The schematic diagram of the fabricated DSSC is shown in Fig. 1. For the fabrication of DSSC photo-anode, a layer of TiO2 paste (Ti-Nanoxide D, Solaronix) was deposited on the FTO substrates by using the doctor blade technique (Mills et al. 2003), followed by sintering at elevated temperature. Subsequently, the coated substrate was immersed in N719 dye (Ruthenizer 535-bisTBA, Solaronix) with different concentrations (0 mM, 5 mM, 10 mM, 15 mM, 20 mM and 25mM) of chenodeoxycholic acid as co-adsorbent for dye loading. The DSSC counter electrode was prepared by applying the platinum (Pt) paste (Platisol T/SP, Solaronix) on another bare FTO substrate, and the coated substrate was subjected to elevated temperature. The dye-loaded photo-anode and Pt-coated counter electrode were sandwiched together by using the binder clips, followed by the injection of the electrolyte (Iodolyte AN-50, Solaronix) through the thin gap in between both substrates.

Fig. 1: Schematic diagram of the fabricated DSSC

The current-voltage measurements were performed using Oriel Sol2A solar simulator which was calibrated to 100 mWcm-2 that corresponded to standard AM 1.5 solar condition. The current-voltage characteristics of DSSCs were measured and controlled by using Keithley Series 2400 Source Meter. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The photocurrent density-voltage characteristics of DSSCs sensitized by N719 dyes with CDCA concentrations of 0 mM, 5 mM, 10 mM, 15 mM, 20 mM and 25 mM under AM 1.5 solar irradiation are illustrated in Fig. 2, while the corresponding photovoltaic parameters are summarized in Table 1. From Table 1, it can be observed that the short circuit current density (Jsc) of DSSC was improved steadily from 8.26 mAcm-2 to 9.50 mAcm-2 by increasing the concentration of CDCA from 0 mM to 15 mM. The optimum photovoltaic performance of DSSC was obtained with the addition of 15 mM CDCA, which achieved efficiency of 4.91% compared to the 4.17% for the DSSC without CDCA. The improved Jsc can be attributed to the hindered formation of dye aggregation as CDCA is able to displace the dye molecules from the surface of TiO2 film (Li et al. 2011). As a result, the electron injection efficiency was improved, leading to the enhanced photocurrent. Another explanation is that the presence of CDCA can shield the dye molecules against the electron recombination, which promoted electron injection into TiO2 conduction band by supplying higher concentration of functional dyes on the TiO2 surface (Jiang et al. 2010). Nevertheless, the DSSC efficiency dropped to 3.03% when the CDCA concentration was further increased to 25 mM. The primary reason of decreased efficiency was due to the reduced dye loading as CDCA can displace the dye

2ND INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF ELECTRICAL, ELECTRONIC & OPTICAL ENGINEERING (ICEEOE 2019)

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molecules from the surface of TiO2 film. Therefore, it is important to find the equilibrium in between the dye loading and prevention of dye aggregation through the addition of CDCA, which is shown in present work.

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8

0mM CDCA5mM CDCA10mM CDCA15mM CDCA20mM CDCA25mM CDCA

Voltage [V]

Cu

rre

nt

de

nsity [

mA

/cm

2]

Fig. 2: Photocurrent density-voltage characteristics of DSSCs sensitized by N719 dyes with different

concentration of CDCA under AM 1.5 solar irradiation

Table 1: Summary of the DSSC photovoltaic performance

Concentration of CDCA (mM)

Voc (mV) Jsc (mAcm-2) Efficiency, η (%) Fill factor, FF (%)

0 731 8.26 4.17 69.03

5 734 9.04 4.52 68.09

10 724 9.45 4.70 68.65

15 738 9.50 4.91 70.06

20 728 8.90 4.58 69.95

25 680 9.23 3.03 48.21

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CONCLUSION

In this work, the effect of chenodeoxycholic acid (CDCA) as co-adsorbent in N719 dye solution was investigated. It was discovered that increasing the CDCA concentrations led to enhanced Jsc and improved DSSC efficiency. The optimized DSSC performance was obtained with the addition of 15 mM CDCA, which improved the DSSC efficiency from 4.17% (without CDCA) to 4.91%. The improved Jsc and efficiency can be attributed to the hindered formation of dye aggregation and reduced electron recombination. Further increase in CDCA concentration led to the decreased DSSC efficiency due to reduced dye loading as CDCA displaced the dye molecules from the surface of TiO2 film. DSSC has promising prospects in building integrated photovoltaic application (BIPV) as well as indoor and portable applications due to its semi-transparency and ability to operate under low light condition. Nevertheless, improved DSSC design in terms of costing and efficiency is essential to realize the commercialization of DSSC. This study elucidates the importance of CDCA as co-adsorbent to improve DSSC performance, which is important in achieving efficient DSSC. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We would like to acknowledge Telekom Research & Development Sdn. Bhd. (TM R&D) for providing financial sponsorship to facilitate this research project under TM R&D Research Grant 2017 (Project Code: MMUE/170011).

MAIN REFERENCES

1. Jiang, Xiao, Tannia Marinado, Erik Gabrielsson, Daniel P. Hagberg, Licheng Sun, and Anders

Hagfeldt. 2010. “Structural Modification of Organic Dyes for Efficient Coadsorbent-Free Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells.” The Journal of Physical Chemistry C 114(6):2799–2805.

2. Jungsuttiwong, Siriporn, Kanokkorn Sirithip, Narid Prachumrak, Ruangchai Tarsang, Taweesak Sudyoadsuk, Supawadee Namuangruk, Nawee Kungwan, Vinich Promarak, and Tinnagon Keawin. 2017. “Significant Enhancement in the Performance of Porphyrin for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells: Aggregation Control Using Chenodeoxycholic Acid.” New Journal of Chemistry 41(15):7081–91.

3. Li, Jing, WenJun Wu, JiaBao Yang, Jin Tang, YiTao Long, and JianLi Hua. 2011. “Effect of

Chenodeoxycholic Acid (CDCA) Additive on Phenothiazine Dyes Sensitized Photovoltaic Performance.” Science China Chemistry 54(4):699–706.

4. Lu, Hsueh-Pei, Chen-Yuan Tsai, Wei-Nan Yen, Chou-Pou Hsieh, Cheng-Wei Lee, Chen-Yu Yeh,

and Eric Wei-Guang Diau. 2009. “Control of Dye Aggregation and Electron Injection for Highly Efficient Porphyrin Sensitizers Adsorbed on Semiconductor Films with Varying Ratios of Coadsorbate.” The Journal of Physical Chemistry C 113(49):20990–97.

5. Mills, Andrew, Nicholas Elliott, George Hill, David Fallis, James R. Durrant, and Richard L. Willis.

2003. “Preparation and Characterisation of Novel Thick Sol–Gel Titania Film Photocatalysts.” Photochem. Photobiol. Sci. 2(5):591–96.

6. O’Regan, Brian and Michael Grätzel. 1991. “A Low-Cost, High-Efficiency Solar Cell Based on Dye-

2ND INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF ELECTRICAL, ELECTRONIC & OPTICAL ENGINEERING (ICEEOE 2019)

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Sensitized Colloidal TiO2 Films.” Nature 353(6346):737–40. 7. Wang, P., S. M. Zakeeruddin, R. Humphry-Baker, J. E. Moser, and M. Grätzel. 2003. “Molecular-

Scale Interface Engineering of TiO2 Nanocrystals: Improve the Efficiency and Stability of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells.” Advanced Materials 15(24):2101–4.

8. Wang, Peng, Shaik M. Zakeeruddin, Pascal Comte, Raphael Charvet, Robin Humphry-Baker, and Michael Grätzel. 2003. “Enhance the Performance of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells by Co-Grafting Amphiphilic Sensitizer and Hexadecylmalonic Acid on TiO 2 Nanocrystals.” The Journal of Physical Chemistry B 107(51):14336–41.

9. Wang, Zhong-Sheng, Yan Cui, Yasufumi Dan-oh, Chiaki Kasada, Akira Shinpo, and Kohjiro Hara.

2007. “Thiophene-Functionalized Coumarin Dye for Efficient Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells:  Electron Lifetime Improved by Coadsorption of Deoxycholic Acid.” The Journal of Physical Chemistry C 111(19):7224–30.

10. Yum, J. H., S. J. Moon, R. Humphry-Baker, P. Walter, T. Geiger, F. Nüesch, M. Grätzel, and M. d K.

Nazeeruddin. 2008. “Effect of Coadsorbent on the Photovoltaic Performance of Squaraine Sensitized Nanocrystalline Solar Cells.” Nanotechnology 19(42):424005.