20.109(F11): Mod 3 Day 4 Solar cell assembly

Solar Cell Assembly

Introduction

The principle of our dye-sensitized solar cells is that light absorption by a dye will provide the energy to transfer its electrons to a mixture of titania and titania coated SWNT:phage complexes, which will act as a shuttle to deliver the electrons to an external circuit for extraction of "useful" energy. During the first two lab sessions of this third module, you worked to coat genetically-modified M13 phage with single walled carbon nano-tubes and to mineralize TiO₂ upon them. (These steps are summarized visually in the top of the figure to the right) Now it's time to use these complexes to construct the anode of the dye-sensitized solar cell. (The anode can be seen in the bottom left of the image to the right)

Protocols

While You Were Out

The TiO₂ mineralized SWNT:phage complexes that you left last time were dried in a vacuum oven at room temperature. The dried substance was then ground, using a mortar and pestle into a powder on the micrometer scale. To this ground material, a paste of pure TiO₂, ethyl cellulose (for viscosity) and terpineol (an organic solvent). To the right can be seen the image of the paste before the SWNT:titania powder was added (left) and after (right).