Laser assisted glass frit sealing for production large area DSCs panels

For the first time laser assisted sealing using lead-free glass frit was successfully applied for producing a DSC panel with a total sealed area of 1638 cm2 and active area of 990 cm2. The panel comprises 90 DSCs individual glass sealed cells (140 mm × 13 mm) arranged in 10 sub-modules (150 mm × 150 mm). Indoor aging of individual sub-modules in dark and at ambient temperature for 100 days showed rather small decrease of the photocurrent conversion efficiency: −1.23 · 10−4 day−1. The DSC panel was tested under outdoor working conditions during 47 days in summer time (Porto, Portugal), where the average day illumination level was about 6 kW h m−2. After 47 days of continuous power production the assembled panel kept 86% of the initial efficiency. No leakage of electrolyte or visual defects in the sealed glass frit were detected. Glass sealed DSCs performed superior stability under 1000 h of ageing in a climatic chamber when compared to polymer sealed cells. The results show that the laser assisted sealing can be applied to large area DSC modules.