Modeling transport and interfacial phenomena in a nanowire-based, dye-sensitized solar cell

A model of charged species transport was used to assess the performance characteristics of a dye-sensitized solar cell. A system in which high surface area at the junction is achieved by immersing an array of ZnO semiconducting nanowires into a bath of lithium-iodide-triiodide electrolyte confined between transparent conducting oxide contacts was considered. Boundary conditions are formulated to represent open and closed circuit cases for both dark and illuminated conditions. Oxidation of iodide at the anode and reduction of triiodide at the cathode were treated using Butler-Volmer kinetics. Voltage-current relationships were then computed to determine the internal resistance of the cell, a critical factor in cell efficiency, as a function of operating conditions and cell geometry. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 2007 AIChE Annual Meeting (Salt Lake City, UT 11/4-9/2007).