Laser sealed dye-sensitized solar cells: Efficiency and long term stability

Abstract

Long-term stability is a major issue preventing dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) market implementation.The DSC stability problem relates to the sealing methods which usually employ thermoplastic sealants.This communication shows for the first time that laser glass sealing originates stable and efficient DSCs.Laser sealed DSCs showed remarkable stability compared to the Surlyns sealed devices (ca. 2% vs. 44%)after accelerated ageing during 1000 h, at 65 °C, light intensity of 765 W m2 and resistive electrical load(0.6 V). These results show that efficient encapsulation methods are crucial to DSC stability and thatthe developed sealing process can bring stable and efficient DSCs to the photovoltaic market.