New interdigital design for large area dye solar modules using a lead-free glass frit sealing

A new interdigital design for large area dye solar modules is developed for an area of 30 x 30 cm(2). This design requires fewer holes in the glass substrate for electrolyte filling, than the conventional strip design. A complete manufacturing process of this module-ranging from screen printed layers to semi-automated colouring and electrolyte filling-in a laboratory-scale baseline is illustrated. As primary sealing method, a durable glass frit sealing is used. It is shown, that the lead (Pb) content present in many glass frit powders contaminates the catalytic platinum electrode during the sintering process, resulting in a lowering of the fill factor. A screen printable lead-free glass frit paste is developed, which solves this problem. Long term stability tests are presented on 2.5 cm(2) dye solar cells, which have been completely sealed with glass fit. In consecutively performed accelerated ageing tests under 85 degrees C in the dark (about 1400 h) and continuous illumination with visible light (1 sun, about 1700 h), a 2.5 cm(2) dye solar cell with an electrolyte based on propylmethylimidazolium iodide showed an overall degradation of less than 5% in conversion efficiency. In a subsequently performed thermal cycling test (-40 degrees C to + 85 degrees C, 50 cycles) a 2.5cm(2) dye solar cell with the same electrolyte composition also showed only a slight degradation of less than 5% in conversion efficiency

Electronic Properties and Supramolecular Organization of Terminal Bis(alkylethynyl)-Substituted Benzodithiophenes

Benzodithiophene (BDT) was symmetrically bisubstituted in the terminal positions with five different alkynes C C-(CnH2n+1) with n = 4, 6, 8 10, 12 The materials were characterized as potential materials for field-effect transistor applications Electrochemical measurements in solution and photophysical measurements in solution and in the solid state, together with UV photoelectron spectroscopy in air and quantum-chemical calculations, elucidate the nature of the frontier orbitals and of the excited states as well as their deactivation pathways Structural information on the molecular assembly in the solid state, both at room temperature and at elevated temperatures, is obtained by a combination of DSC, polarized optical microscopy and 2D-WAXS which point to the crystallinity of the compounds in all phases and reveal pi-stacking arrangements independently of the length of the alkyl side chain

Fabrication of highly transparent and conductive indium-tin oxide thin films with a high figure of merit via solution processing

10.1021/la4033282Langmuir294513836-13842LANG