Dye-sensitized solar cells on stainless steel

Light-weight dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) on stainless steel meshes of the types 304, 316Ti, 904L, and the alloy 20Cb-3 were successfully fabricated and investigated. Surprizingly, all fabricated solar cells have shown a voltage shift of about 0.2 V in comparison to standard DSSCs and a hysteresis in the J-V characteristics, which strongly depends on the scan rate. A large capacitance of 171 µF/cm2 was found to describe this effect. Different stainless steel types for the mesh were compared and only small differences between them were identified.