ABSTRACT
In this chapter, DSSCs are used as a prototype photovoltaic cell to illustrate the basic characteristics, preparation and application of transparent conductive films. Since almost all the components in DSSCs are made from nanomaterials, the discussion on nanomaterials and structures presented in the chapter will be based on their roles in DSSCs. Transparent conducting electrode, or transparent conducting film, are widely used in various thin-film solar cells and other electronics such as flat panel displays and touchscreens. The nanomaterial scaffold is part of the photoanode with which sensitizers are incorporated. The major obstacles in achieving NSCs with high conversion efficiency stems from the carrier recombination occurring majorly at grain boundaries among nanoparticles and the number of grain boundaries are huge. Metal oxide films have great performance as electrodes for photovoltaic devices. Graphene’s hexagonal honeycomb lattice was revealed by transmission electron microscopy in reciprocal space (momentum space) and scanning tunneling microscopy in real space, both having atomic resolutions.
