Ultrafast TiO2 Sintering of Metal Mounted Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

A primary challenge to the industrial uptake of Dye-sensitized solar cells on metals is the ability to speed up process steps to facilitate rapid roll to roll production. One critical step is the sintering of the TiO2 layer typically taking up to one hour at 500deg. Here, an ultrafast near infrared (NIR) heating method is presented which directly heats metal substrates to very high temperatures. NIR is used to heat 1mm thick titanium metal coupons onto which 1cm2 commercial TiO2 pastes have been deposited within 12.5 seconds giving assembled dye-sensitized solar cell efficiencies which are equivalent or better in terms of efficiency to cells prepared using a convection oven for 30 minutes.