International Journal of Energy Research, Vol.36, No.2, 193-203, 2012
Evaluation of decay photocurrent measurements in dye-sensitized solar cells: Application to laser beam-induced current technique
The use of the laser beam-induced current (LBIC) technique in photovoltaic devices is widespread, but its use in photoelectrochemical cells, such as dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), is limited due to the configuration of these devices. The main reason is the very slow response time of DSSCs in the decay process, and therefore LBIC scans take too long to perform. We have designed a procedure published in the literature to correct the photocurrent values obtained by the LBIC technique, based on an algorithm that uses a decreasing mono-exponential model. This work presents a study of the decay measurements in DSSCs using several functions, in order to improve the algorithm designed. It concludes that functions such as a decreasing bi-exponential or Becquerel function generate better fits to experimental data. Copyright (C) 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Keywords:dye-sensitized solar cell;decay photocurrent measurements;LBIC technique;Becquerel function;bi-exponential function