%0 Journal Article
%T Material Selection for Dye Sensitized Solar Cells Using Multiple Attribute Decision Making Approach
%A Sarita Baghel
%A Ranjana Jha
%A Nikhil Jindal
%J Journal of Renewable Energy
%D 2014
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2014/506216
%X Dye sensitized solar cells (DSCs) provide a potential alternative to conventional p-n junction photovoltaic devices. The semiconductor thin film plays a crucial role in the working of DSC. This paper aims at formulating a process for the selection of optimum semiconductor material for nanostructured thin film using multiple attribute decision making (MADM) approach. Various possible available semiconducting materials and their properties like band gap, cost, mobility, rate of electron injection, and static dielectric constant are considered and MADM technique is applied to select the best suited material. It was found that, out of all possible candidates, titanium dioxide (TiO2) is the best semiconductor material for application in DSC. It was observed that the proposed results are in good agreement with the experimental findings. 1. Introduction Rapid depletion of conventional resources is a major source of concern for the world today. If not taken seriously, soon there shall be an inevitable energy crisis situation. To prevent such circumstances, researchers today are forced to explore alternate energy sources. Among available renewable energy sources, solar energy is the most promising and readily available alternative. Solar cells play a significant role in harnessing solar energy but, due to numerous reasons, we have still not been able to effectively use the power of sun. Conventional silicon (Si) solar cells generally require complex vacuum processing and fairly high temperature conditions which makes them an expensive energy source [1¨C3]. Moreover, their application is hampered by the lack of mechanical flexibility. Dye sensitized solar cells (DSCs) are attractive due to their simple and low cost fabrication technique. DSCs are different from almost all other types of solar cells in their functioning. DSCs are composed of a sensitizing dye adsorbed on a wide band nanostructured semiconductor film, a redox electrolyte, and a counter electrode consisting of a catalyst. Future applications of DSCs depend upon the development and selection of suitable materials for their components so as to give the best performance. Among various components of DSC, the nanocrystalline porous film electrode is most important as overall energy conversion of the cell is hugely affected by its morphological and electronic properties. There are many materials that are being used in the DSC while many more are being investigated. However, each of these materials has certain merits and limitations. Choosing the material of desired properties from large number of available
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jre/2014/506216/