Titanium oxide Films Prepared by Sputtering, Sol Gel and Dip Coating Methods for Photovoltaic Application

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) without using transparent conducting oxides (TCO) electrode can be produced at much lower cost with a flexible structure. A new type of DSCs using flexible stainless steel mesh sheets based electrode is reported in this research. The working electrode of DSCs is processed with conductive and flexible stainless mesh coated with metal oxides (TiO2) layer either by sputtering, sol gel or dip coating methods. Structures of the TCO-less DSCs sample is a stainless mesh for working electrode/dye sensitized TiO2 layer/liquid type electrolyte with polymer film/Pt doped Ti plate for counter electrode. The metal oxide coated stainless mesh sample showed higher photo-current conversion efficiency in general. The best cell performance in this experiment showed the efficiency of 3.11% (Voc = 0.58 V, Jsc = 11.98 mA/cm2, ff = 0.45).