**5. Prospects of CNT in DSSC application**

DSSCs have attracted considerable attention due to their simple fabrication process, inexpensive raw materials, and employment of eco-friendly materials. Recently, to take advantage of their lower electrical resistance, excellent electrocatalytic operation, mechanical integrity, low cost, and flexibility, CNTs have been incorporated into DSSCs. Kongkaland et al. used a different approach using carbon fiber electrodes (CFE) than conventional transparent conduction oxide, such as ITO, FTO, etc. They have deposited TiO2 semiconductor material on the CFE and CFE-SWCNT film. The incorporation of SWCNT in the CFE increased cell performance from 7.36–16%. This two times improvement in the cell

**Figure 18.**

*SEM of a (A) CFE before surface modification; (B) deposition of TiO2 on CFE film; (C) electrophoretic deposition of SWCNT on CFE; (D) after deposition of deposition of TiO2 on CFE-SWCNT film [49].*

performance indicates that CNTs can serve a valuable role in facilitating charge collection in DSSC application. **Figure 18** illustrates the SEM image of CFE and

*(a) Basic structure of a textile DSC (b) SEM images of a textile DSC with 560μmpitch distances (c) SEM images of a textile DSC with 164 μm pitch distances, (d) A textile DSC before and after stretch by 30%, and*

*SEM image of (a) different parts of the wire, (b) a wire section uniformly wrapped by CNT film. (c) CNT*

*Improvement of Efficiency of Dye Sensitized Solar Cells by Incorporating Carbon Nanotubes*

*network deposited on porous TiO2, and (d) CNT-TiO2 nanotubes [50]*.

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.96630*

CFE-SWCNT base anode for DSSC application [49].

**Figure 20.**

**Figure 21.**

**403**

*(e) A textile DSC after 30%stretch [51].*

**Figure 19***.* C*oaxial single-wire structure DSSC [50]*.

*Improvement of Efficiency of Dye Sensitized Solar Cells by Incorporating Carbon Nanotubes DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.96630*

**Figure 20.**

have been incorporated into DSSCs. Kongkaland et al. used a different approach using carbon fiber electrodes (CFE) than conventional transparent conduction oxide, such as ITO, FTO, etc. They have deposited TiO2 semiconductor material on the CFE and CFE-SWCNT film. The incorporation of SWCNT in the CFE increased

cell performance from 7.36–16%. This two times improvement in the cell

*Solar Cells - Theory, Materials and Recent Advances*

*SEM of a (A) CFE before surface modification; (B) deposition of TiO2 on CFE film; (C) electrophoretic deposition of SWCNT on CFE; (D) after deposition of deposition of TiO2 on CFE-SWCNT film [49].*

**Figure 18.**

**Figure 19***.*

**402**

C*oaxial single-wire structure DSSC [50]*.

*SEM image of (a) different parts of the wire, (b) a wire section uniformly wrapped by CNT film. (c) CNT network deposited on porous TiO2, and (d) CNT-TiO2 nanotubes [50]*.

#### **Figure 21.**

*(a) Basic structure of a textile DSC (b) SEM images of a textile DSC with 560μmpitch distances (c) SEM images of a textile DSC with 164 μm pitch distances, (d) A textile DSC before and after stretch by 30%, and (e) A textile DSC after 30%stretch [51].*

performance indicates that CNTs can serve a valuable role in facilitating charge collection in DSSC application. **Figure 18** illustrates the SEM image of CFE and CFE-SWCNT base anode for DSSC application [49].

Powering next-generation wearable/implantable biomedical devices, or smart textile, have gained extensive attention in recent years. Among the developed energy harvesting devices, DSSCs cell structures have become ideal candidates for developing practical self-powered biomedical devices or smart textile due to their lightweight, flexibility, high power-per-weight ratios, and superior mechanical stability/robustness. The conventional planar-shaped DSSCs with sandwich-like configuration includes five primary parts: TCO, an anode (semiconductor material), dye, redox electrolyte, and cathode (Pt/C). Based on the conventional planar structure, DSSCs can also be made into flexible configurations. Zhang et al. fabricated fiber-shaped DSSC and made a double-wire structure (shown in **Figure 19**). They have manufactured a flexible DSSC structure on a single wire (Ti-TiO2) and wrap the CNT around the tube array. CNT provides full contact with the active layer, unlike Pt, and provides uniform light absorption throughout the entire circumference ofDSSC [50]. **Figure 20** illustrates the fabricated fiber shaped DSSC [50].

Yang et al. further developed a wearable DSSC textiles method based on electrically conducting fibers. They have prepared fiber electrodes by aligning winding multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) sheets on rubber fibers. The working fiber electrode was prepared by incorporating modified Ti onto the MWCNT fiber electrode (**Figure 21c**). The wire-shaped DSSCs could weave into wearable photovoltaic textile solar cells. The maximum cell efficiency of the wire-shaped DSSC reached 7.13% [51].

**Author details**

Japan

**405**

Md. Saifur Rahaman<sup>1</sup>

and Tomoaki Ikegami<sup>5</sup>

Md. Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan1,4\*†, Fahmid Kabir2†, Md. Serajum Manir<sup>3</sup>

*Improvement of Efficiency of Dye Sensitized Solar Cells by Incorporating Carbon Nanotubes*

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.96630*

1 Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology, Atomic Energy Research Establishment, Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission, Dhaka, Bangladesh

3 Institute of Radiation and Polymer Technology, Atomic Energy Research Establishment, Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission, Dhaka, Bangladesh

4 Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Central University of Science

5 Faculty of Advanced Science and Technology, Kumamoto University, Kumamoto,

© 2021 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,

, Bikrom Ghosh<sup>2</sup>

, Prosenjit Barua<sup>2</sup>

2 Institute of Energy, University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh

\*Address all correspondence to: mosharraf22003@yahoo.com;

and Technology, Mirpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh

mosharraf22003@baec.gov.bd

† These authors contributed equally.

provided the original work is properly cited.

,

, Fumiaki Mitsugi<sup>5</sup>
