Flexible dye-sensitized solar cell fabricated on plastic substrate by laser-detachment and press method

This report shows that flexible dye-sensitized solar cell can be fabricated by a laser-detachment and press method where the TiO2 electrode typically sintered on glass source substrate is detached by a laser pulse and then is firmly adhered to the conductive plastic substrate by applying a high pressure. The cells fabricated by this process exhibited 36–43% smaller photocurrent and efficiency than the conventional glass cells with directly coated TiO2 electrodes. It was attributed to the lowered dye coverage and electron diffusion length, both of which originate from the press-induced reduction of TiO2 porosity. A maximum efficiency of 5.68% was obtained for the plastic cell. Bending of the electrode led to 20% loss of the current density and efficiency. However, no further performance degradation was observed even when the bending cycle was increased to 100, 300, and 500 times. This indicates that the bending-induced degradation of TiO2 electrode on the plastic substrate takes place at the first bending.