A STUDY FROM JUNK MARKET TO THE PRODUCTION OF 5.25% EFFICIENT DYE-SENSITIZED SOLAR CELLS

This paper reveals that having limited facilities is just an excuse not to do any experimental research in most of the universities and institutions all over the world. This may sound impractical for developed countries; however, it is one of the most fundamental problems for underdeveloped and even for some of the developing countries. In this paper, a study of building a laboratory mostly using homemade devices from junks is explained. This paper might be a good and encouraging reference especially for low-income countries, some universities/institutions with very limited budget around the world as well as some students/researchers who want to have their own tools to conduct a research. After a brief explanation to build some of the tools using junks, the production of dye-sensitized solar cells using homemade equipments with up to 5.25% power conversion efficiency (PCE) will be demonstrated under AM1.5 simulated light emission. Structural, electrical and photovoltaic properties of the fabricated devices will also be investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction spectroscopy (XRD), and current-voltage (IV) characterization tools in this paper.