Regeneration performance tolerance of dye-sensitized solar cells based on continuous repeated electric erasure/re-sensitization

Abstract The reconstructing the photoanode after the dye-sensitized solar cells (DSC) was assembled can regenerate the DSC performance. In order to maximize the recycling of materials, extend the service life of DSC, and greatly reduce the cost of device, the tolerance of the regeneration cycle of DSC performance should be studied. This paper adopts the continuous repeated electric erasure/re-sensitization (EERS) dye molecules on surface of the TiO 2 film to study the tolerance of the regeneration cycle of DSC performance. The effect of the multiple EERS process on DSC photoelectric properties, TiO 2 surface states, electron transfer and transport properties are studied in depth. The result shows that after being erased and re-sensitized for the first two times, the performance parameters remain almost unchanged. However, J sc declines, V oc declines slightly and FF is almost unchanged after the subsequent continuous operation with EERS. Finally, DSC efficiency remains around 90.98% after being erased and re-sensitized for six times. The major cause of efficiency decline is the declining J sc and V oc caused by more defects on the TiO 2 film surface due to EERS process. The research results predict that the DSC performance can be regenerated multiple times and service life of device can increase dramatically.