Modification of photoanode surface structure via image analysis on organic polymer material based for dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) applications

In this study, the experiment on the modification of the photoanode with organic polymer material as copolymer template for dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) applications has been conducted. The two organic copolymer templates are polystyrene sphere (PS) and poly[2- methoxy-5(2-ethylhexyloxy)-1,4-phenylenevinylene] (MEH-PPV). The modification photoanodes were made using Dr. Blade’s method. These organic copolymer templates were added to improve the surface of the mesoporous titanium dioxide (TiO₂) layer, which is used as the main component in DSSC photoanode. The unmodified TiO₂ photoanode has poor aggregation and porosity of TiO₂. The addition of either MEH-PPV or PS sphere to the photoanode layer was found to affect the surface of mesoporous TiO₂ in terms of porosity, particle size distribution and shape. The analysis of the TiO2 modification was conducted using an image analysis processing method via a 2D scanning electron microscope (SEM) image. The image analysis processing method used was the ImageJ program. The DSSC of modified photoanode is fabricated using metal complex dye, Ruthenium (N719) dye. The data collected from the ImageJ program showed that by adding organic copolymer templates into TiO₂, the porosity of TiO₂ decreased from 45 % to 42 %. From the photovoltaic analysis obtained, the J-V characteristic is recorded with the photoanode of TiO₂ mixed with 1.00 wt% MEH-PPV gave the highest efficiency, which is 0.01 % with the following parameters – Voc = 0.43 V, Jsc = 0.17 mA/cm2 and FF = 0.20. Meanwhile, the photoanode of TiO₂ mixed with 0.50 wt% PS sphere gave the highest efficiency which is 0.08 % with the following parameters – Voc = 0.39 V, Jsc = 0.86 mA/cm2 and FF = 0.25.