Impact of blocking layers based on TiO2 and ZnO prepared via direct current reactive magnetron sputtering on DSSC solar cells

Maciej Sibiński; Paulina Sawicka-Chudy; Grzegorz Wisz; Paweł Gnida; Ewa Schab-Balcerzak; Andrzej Wal; Rostyslav Yavorskyi; Marian Cholewa

doi:10.1038/s41598-024-61512-6

Impact of blocking layers based on TiO₂ and ZnO prepared via direct current reactive magnetron sputtering on DSSC solar cells

Sci Rep. 2024 May 9;14(1):10676. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-61512-6.

Authors

Maciej Sibiński^{1

2}, Paulina Sawicka-Chudy³, Grzegorz Wisz³, Paweł Gnida⁴, Ewa Schab-Balcerzak^{4

5}, Andrzej Wal⁶, Rostyslav Yavorskyi⁷, Marian Cholewa⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Material and Environmental Technology, Tallinn University of Technology, Ehitajate tee 5, 19086, Tallinn, Estonia. maciej.sibinski@taltech.ee.
² Department of Semiconductor and Optoelectronic Devices, Łódź University of Technology, Al. Politechniki 10, 93-590, Łódź, Poland. maciej.sibinski@taltech.ee.
³ Institute of Materials Engineering, College of Natural Sciences, University of Rzeszów, Pigonia 1, 35-310, Rzeszów, Poland.
⁴ Centre of Polymer and Carbon Materials, Polish Academy of Sciences, 34 M. Curie-Sklodowska Str., 41-819, Zabrze, Poland.
⁵ Institute of Chemistry, Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry, University of Silesia, Szkolna 9, 40-007, Katowice, Poland.
⁶ Institute of Physics, College of Natural Sciences, University of Rzeszów, Pigonia 1, 35-310, Rzeszów, Poland.
⁷ Department of Physics and Chemistry of Solid State, Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpation National University, T. Shevchenko Str. 57, Ivano-Frankivsk, 76-018, Ukraine.

Abstract

The optimization of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) technology towards suppressing charge recombination between the contact and the electron transport layer is a key factor in achieving high conversion efficiency and the successful commercialization of this type of product. An important aspect of the DSSC structure is the front blocking layer (BL): optimizing this component may increase the efficiency of photoelectron transfer from the dye to the semiconductor by reduction charge recombination at the TiO₂/electrolyte and FTO/electrolyte interfaces. In this paper, a series of blocking layer variants, based on TiO₂ and ZnO:TiO₂, were obtained using the reactive magnetron sputtering method. Material composition, structure and layer thickness were referred to each process parameters. Complete DSSCs with structure FTO/BL/m-TiO₂@N719/ EL-HSE/Pt/FTO were obtained on such bases. In the final results, verification of opto-electrical parameters of these cells were tested and used for the conclusions on the optimal blocking layer composition. As the conclusion, application of blocking layer consists of neat TiO₂ resulted in improvement of device efficiency. It should be noted that for TiO₂:ZnO/Cu_xO and TiO₂/Cu_xO cells, higher efficiencies were also achieved when pure TiO₂ was used as window layer. Additionally it was proven that the admixture of ZnO phase inspires V_oc and FF growth, but is overall unfavorable compared to pristine TiO₂ blocking layer and the reference cell, according to the final cell efficiency.