Advancements in the Development of Various Types of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells:A Comparative Review

The global increase in energy demand has resulted in the depletion of non-renewable resources and caused environmental degradation.Consequently,emerging renewable technologies are a potential solution to fulfil energy demand and mitigate the effect of global warming.Low-cost solar energy harvesting technologies are most feasible technologies.Various solar cells technologies have been developed with improved overall performance and conversion effi-ciency.However,due to low cost and a wide range of applications,dye-sensitized solar cells(DSSCs)have been immensely focused on one of the most promising third-generation solar cells.The highest conversion efficiency of DSSC achieved after three decades of research is more than 14%,but the commercialization of this technology is still a challenge.In this review paper,an attempt has been made to present the comparison of different articles published,that gives the in-depth study of recent developments in various types of DSSCs based on architectural assembly and physical appearance.An overview of the limitations and challenges with their possible improvement strategies have also been discussed.This review paper concludes that appropriate selection of electrolytes dramatically affects the performance of DSSC,and quasi-solid-state electrolyte proves to be a better option.Besides,it also concludes that tandem structures are widely agreed with the approach to expand light utilization spectrum for an overall increase in its performance.However,still,the research is required,which could efficiently widen the applications of the DSSCs.

Photo-driven water splitting photoelectrochemical cells by tandem organic dye sensitized solar cells with I-/I3- as redox mediator

Dye-sensitized photoelectrochemical tandem cells have shown the promise for light driven hydrogen production from water owing to the low cost,wide absorption spectra in the visible region and ease to process of their constitutive photoelectrode materials.However,most photo-driven water splitting photoelectrochemical cells driven by organic dye sensitized solar cells exhibit unsatisfactory hydrogen evolution rate,primarily attributed to their poor light capturing ability and low photocurrent performance.Here we present the construction of a tandem system consisting of an organic blue-colored S5 sensitizer-based dyesensitized photoelectrochemical cell(DSPEC) wired in series with three spectral-complemental dyes BTA-2,APP-3 and APP-1 sensitizers-based dye-sensitized solar cell(DSC),respectively.The two spectral-complemental chromophores were used in DSC and DSPEC to ensure that the full solar spectrum could be absorbed as much as possible.The results showed that the photocurrent of tandem device was closely related to the open-circuit voltage(Voc) of sensitized DSC,in which the tandem configuration consisting of S5 based DSPEC and BTA-2 based DSC gave the best photocurrent.On this basis,tandem device with the only light energy and no external applied electrical bias was further constructed of BTA-2 based 2-junction DSC and S5 based DSPEC and obtained a photocurrent of 500 μA cm-2 for hydrogen generation.Furthermore,I-/I3-was used as a redox couple between dye regeneration and O2 production on the surface of Pt-IrO2/WO3.The strategy opens up the application of pure organic dyes in DSC/DSPEC tandem device.