Development of low-temperature sintering technique for plastic dye-sensitized solar cells

Dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSCs) requires sintering of TiO₂ photoelectrode at 450~550 °C to be manufactured. However, the high-temperature sintering is disadvantageous because it limits the use of materials that cannot withstand high temperatures. In our previous work, we proposed plasma and low-pressure mercury (Hg) lamp ultraviolet (UV) treatments of the TiO₂ electrode to reduce the sintering temperature by half. It was concluded that the effect of the surface treatment is due to reactive oxygen species (O₃, O, OH) produced by the plasma and UV light. In this paper, we propose a new technique for TiO₂ photoelectrode, which can reduce the sintering temperature from 450°C to 150°C. We were also succeeded in manufacturing plastic DSSC at 150-°C sintered by using the new technique. The conversion efficiency of plastic DSSC was 2.9 %.