AAAR 34th Annual Conference
October 12 - October 16, 2015
Hyatt Regency
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Abstract View
Aerosol Synthesis of 3D Crumpled Graphene and Their Application to Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells
EUN HEE JO, Hankwon Chang, Jiwoong Kim, Ki-Min Roh, Hee Dong Jang, University of Science and Technology
Abstract Number: 40 Working Group: Nanoparticles and Materials Synthesis
Abstract Since dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) were found by the Gratzel group, they have been attracting interest because of its low cost, simple process and relatively high energy conversion efficiency. Among all the components of DSSC, a photoanode, which is a nanocrystalline TiO$_2 film, plays important roles of loading dye, seperating and transporting electrons. However, the low electron transport in disordered nanocrystalline TiO$_2 film represents a major limitation of such nanostructured photoanodes.
In this study, we prepared the three dimensional crumpled graphene (3D CGR) from a colloidal solution of graphene oxide (GO) via an aerosol spray drying process. As-prepared 3D CGR was introduced in a nanocrystalline TiO$_2 photoanode for DSSCs. Effect of the weight ratio of 3D CGR in the TiO$_2 on the properties of DSSC was investigated. The morphology of as-prepared 3D CGR and 3D CGR/TiO$_2 film were characterized by FE-SEM. Also, photovoltaic performances and charge recombination kinetics of DSSCs were measured using a solar simulator under simulated solar light and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) analysis. The DSSC fabricated with the 3D CGR/TiO$_2 photoanode (3D CGR/TiO$_2=0.01) showed the highest conversion efficiency of 6.1%, which was approximately 140% higher than that of DSSC fabricated with a pure TiO$_2 photoanode without 3D CGR.