First application of benzotriazole as a dye additive to dye-sensitized solar cells: electrochemical device characterization

Dye-sensitized solar cell, known as an emergent technology, has been attracted attention around the world. It has been easily produced by a mesoporous semiconductor oxide (SO), with a dye. On the other hand, some unexpected reactions as the back-electron recombination, reducing the solar cell efficiency. The presence of some molecules to act as an oxide passivation might rise up the collection reaction rate, and enhance the photoelectrochemical solar system parameters. The molecule used as a dye additive, must effortlessly adsorb in SO and potentiate the dye deaggregation. This work aims to study the benzotriazole (BTAH) insertion in DSSC with TiO2, evaluating its capability as a passivator molecule in such PV technology. The electrochemical results showed better electrochemical energy conversion efficiency with lower resistance with BTAH at 2.0 mg mL−1, achieving a jsc = 9.92 ± 0.26, Voc = 0.770 ± 0.022, FF = 0.557 ± 0.014, ɳ = 4.26 ± 0.13 with superior electron lifetime and amazing recombination prevention.