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US 2003/0196692 A1Published application
Photovoltaic cell
AssigneeCatalysts & Chemicals Industries Co., Ltd.
InventorsTsuguo Koyanagi, Michael Graetzel
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AssigneeCatalysts & Chemicals Industries Co., Ltd.
InventorsTsuguo Koyanagi, Michael Graetzel
Estimating the term…
Disclosed is a photovoltaic cell comprising a substrate having an electrode layer (1) on the surface and having a porous metal oxide semiconductor film (2) which is formed on the electrode layer (1) and on which a photosensitizer is adsorbed, a substrate having an electrode layer (3) on the surface, both of said substrates being arranged in such a manner that the electrode layer (1) and the electrode layer (3) face each other, and an electrolyte layer provided between the semiconductor film (2) and the electrode layer (3), wherein the semiconductor film (2) contains an inhibitor of back current, and at least one pair of substrate and electrode layer thereon have transparency. The photovoltaic cell is capable of inhibiting back current and decomposition of a spectrosensitizing dye caused by the ultraviolet rays, has high photoelectric conversion efficiency and is capable of generating high electromotive force.
A photovoltaic cell comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.
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Comprising an oxide semiconductor electrode: comprising titanium oxide, e.g. TiO2
Comprising an oxide semiconductor electrode: comprising mixed oxides, e.g. ZnO covered TiO2 particles
Transition metal complexes, e.g. Rupolypyridine complexes: comprising ruthenium
Photovoltaic [PV] energy: dye sensitized solar cells
Term end not estimated
The present invention relates to a photovoltaic cell rarely suffering recombination of electrons and/or reverse current (referred to as “back current” hereinafter) of electrons generated by excitation of a photosensitizer and having high photoelectric conversion efficiency.
Metal oxide semiconductor materials having high band gap are used as, for example, photoelectric conversion materials, photocatalytic materials, optical sensors and storage battery materials (batteries).
Of these, the photoelectric conversion materials are those from which optical energy can be continuously taken out as electrical energy and are those to convert optical energy into electrical energy using electrochemical reaction between electrodes. When such photoelectric conversion materials are irradiated with light, electrons are generated on one electrode side and move to the other electrode, and then the electrons migrate in the electrolyte as ions and return to the first electrode. Since this energy conversion is continuously made, it can be utilized for, for example, solar cells.
FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view of one embodiment of the photovoltaic cell according to the present invention.
1: transparent electrode layer
2: porous semiconductor film
The present invention is described in detail hereinafter.
Photovoltaic Cell
The photovoltaic cell according to the invention is a photovoltaic cell comprising: