Surface modification of fluorine-doped tin oxide films using electrochemical etching for dye-sensitized solar cells

By Ju-Won Bae and Bon-Ryul Koo and Ha-Rim An and Hyo-Jin Ahn
Published in Ceramics International NULL 2015

Abstract

We modified the surface of fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) films using electrochemical etching in order to improve the photovoltiac performance of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). For the electrochemical etching, a mixture of \HCl\ and zinc precursor was used as the electrolyte, which generated the H+ needed for activating the SnO2 etching reaction. This led to the formation of surface-modified \FTO\ films that resulted in an increase in surface roughness and a high level of haze without changing the sheet resistance and optical transmittance of the \FTO\ films. The open circuit voltage, fill factor, and short-circuit current density of the \DSSCs\ assembled using the surface-modified \FTO\ films were 0.73 V, 60.53%, and 15.67 mA/cm2, respectively. The surface-modified \FTO\ films created using electrochemical etching showed an improved photoconversion efficiency (~6.95%) when compared to bare \FTO\ films (~6.33%). This improvement in performance was caused by an improved ability to trap light by increasing haze, which resulted in an enhancement in the surface roughness of the \FTO\ films.

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