Silver Conducting Lines of Dye-sensitized Solar Cells Printed onto Commercial Building Tiles

We report a novel design and experimental results of dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) modules using commercial building tiles as one bottom substrate. In the study, the low-cost tiles as being one common part of the present buildings were employed for solar energy conversion unit here. Silver conducting lines consisting of nano-size particles were directly inkjet-printed onto their non-uniform surfaces of the tiles, thereby forming a grid-type pattern of counter electrodes. After sintering at elevated temperatures, the silver-printed tile was bonded together with a TiO2-coated ITO (indium tin oxide) glass substrate immersed in N719 dye solution. The bonded substrates were injected with electrolyte and sealed by thin Polydimethysiloxane (PDMS) film to generate a DSSC device. This DSSC built on the tile basis showed an electric voltage of 0.51 V in the experiment. It is expected to be further developed for the building application for solar energy in the future.