is there any other alternate rather than using a transparent conductive oxide in a dye sensitized solar cell to collect the electrons produced during the process of photo-excitation?
Also metal substrates such as Ti, SUS can be used to DSSC, But Ti metal has high price than FTO and it increases total cost of DSSC,
In addition to price of metal, Also contact resistance between metal and TiO2 also affects performance of DSSCs, Fe2O3 has lower energy level than TiO2 that causes contact resistance
There are reports about the use of metal substrates instead of TCOs. However they are associated with various drawbacks as mentioned by Hansol Jeong above. The most important drawback is that one has to illuminate light from back side (from the side of counter electrode) which attenuates the intensity while light passes through the colored electrolyte solution.
Instead of TCO like FTO or ITO, one can use composite electrode stack like oxide/metal (10-12nm)/oxide. The top and bottom oxide can be zinc oxide, TiO2 or SnO2. Patterened silver mesh can also be used. However, I think FTO shows best results with DSSCs because FTO can undergo high temperature processing with mesoporous TiO2 layer.
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