Highly efficient plastic-substrate dye-sensitized solar cells with validated conversion efficiency of 7.6%

We have developed highly efficient plastic-substrate dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) by the press method. The conversion efficiency of plastic-substrate DSCs could be improved by adjusting the press conditions, the thickness of the TiO2 layer, and the surface treatment of the plastic-substrate. An efficiency of 8% was achieved for such cells with a 0.25 cm2 cell area under 100 mW/cm2 (AM 1.5, 1 sun). We also fabricated 1.111 cm2-sized plastic-substrate DSC that had an efficiency of 7.6%, which was validated by the national standards institute for photovoltaic measurements in Japan, the Research Center for Photovoltaics (RCPV) at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST).