Laser assisted dye-sensitized solar cell sealing: From small to large cells areas

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2014

Authors

Maçaira, J. (Author) FEUP; Mesquita, I. (Author) FEUP; Gabriel, J. (Author) FEUP; Andrade, L. (Author) FEUP; Mendes, A. (Author) FEUP; Fernando Ribeiro (Author) Other

Journal

Title: Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy

Vol. 6

Final page: 011208

ISSN: 1941-7012

Publisher: American Institute of Physics

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 7 Citations

ISI Web of Science

Scopus - 7 Citations

Scientific classification

FOS: Engineering and technology > Chemical engineering

CORDIS: Technological sciences > Engineering > Chemical engineering

Associated Projects

SolarConcept - Novas abordagens para aumento de eficiência das DSCs e sua melhor compreensão

WINDSC - Desenvolvimento e aumento de escala de módulos DSC baseado nas tecnologias inovadoras ETCO e selagem com vidro

BI-DSC - Building Integrated Dye Sensitized Solar Cells

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-009-7N2

DOI: 10.1063/1.4865948

Abstract (EN): Dye sensitized solar cells (DSCs) modules are an emergent photovoltaic technology but still present some weaknesses in terms of long-term stability: sealing is presently the Achilles' heel of DSCs, which is currently preventing their commercialization. Thermoplastic sealants are normally used to bond the two glass substrates of a DSC. However, these thermoplastic sealants, such as Surlyn (R), are permeable towards ambient water vapor, UV sensitive, and they cannot be used above 60 degrees C. Laser assisted glass-frit sealing is a very interesting alternative sealing technique as it has been demonstrated on microelectromechanical systems assembly. For these applications, the laser is shot around the sealing perimeter several times in a loop pattern. Nevertheless, for sealing large areas without heating the samples, this method cannot be applied since the laser loop takes more than 1 s, which is too long for an effective low-temperature glass-frit sealing. At present, work is described a laser assisted sealing technique that is independent of the sealing border format. This technique is applied to several cells and modules of different shapes and sizes. The technique is suitable for DSCs manufacture and can be implemented in an inline production plant. For the same cell format, efficiencies of the glass-sealed and conventional sealing were compared. Stability studies were also presented to evidence the effectiveness of the hermetic sealing obtained with the newly developed sealing process of DSCs devices. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 11