Segmented Cell Design for Improved Factoring of Aging Effects in Dye Solar Cells

A new segmented cell design was applied to study the aging of dye solar cell with stainless steel (StS) photoelectrode substrate, in particular the role of electrolyte in the degradation. Photovoltaic characterization indicated that StS photoelectrode cells are subjected to rapid (within hours or days) performance degradation that did not occur in the StS counter electrode cells. Other complementary techniques, open circuit voltage decay (OCVD) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), showed changes in the recombination at the photoelectrode/electrolyte interface. With the segmented cell method, we confirmed that the electrolyte was not contaminated by the StS nor was it subject to other significant changes related to the rapid degradation.