Nanostructured dye-sensitized solar cells

Figgemeier E. and Hagfeldt A. (2004), Are dye-sensitized nanostructured solar cells stable An overview of device testing and component analyses , Int. J. Photoenergy 6, 127-140. 

Hagberg DP, Edvinsson T, Marinado T, Boschloo G, Hagfeldt A, Sun LC (2006) A novel organic chromophore for dye-sensitized nanostructured solar cells. Chem Comm 21 2245-2247... 

Fig. 9 The working principle of the dye-sensitized nanostructured solar cell...

Abstract Photovoltaic cells have been dominated so far by solid state p-n junction devices made from silicon or gallium arsenide wavers or thin film embodiments based on amorphous silicon, CdTe and copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) profiting from the experience and material availability of the semiconductor industry. Recently there has been a surge of interest for devices that are based on nanoscale inorganic or organic semiconductors commonly referred to as bulk junctions due to their interconnected three-dimensional structure. The present chapter describes the state of the art of the academic and industrial development of nanostructured solar cells, with emphasis in the development of the dye-sensitized nanocristalline solar cell. 

The principles of OSCs have been outlined in detail elsewhere. Various types of cell architectures have been proposed of which three are of main interest (1) bulk heterojunction solar cells in which electron donors and acceptor are homogeneously mixed to jointly form a functional layer, for example, poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) as the donor and substituted fullerenes like [6,6]-phe-nyl-C61-butyric acid methylester (PCBM) as the acceptor (2) multilayer devices of vacuum-deposited small molecules and (3) dye-sensitized nanostructured oxide cells, for example, dyes attached to the surface of nano-Ti02. 

J. Phys. Chem. C (8) Boschloo, G. Edvinsson, T. Hagfeldt, A. Dye-sensitized nanostructured ZnO electrodes for solar cell applications. In Nanostructured Materials for Solar Energy Conversion Soga, T., Ed. Elsevier Amsterdam, 2007 pp 227-254. ... 

Dye Sensitized Nanostructured Metal Oxides for Gratzel Solar Cells... 

He JJ, Lindstrom H, Hagfeldt A et al (1999) Dye-sensitized nanostructured p-type nickel oxide film as a photocathode for a solar cell. J Phys Chem B 103 8940-8943... 

Preliminary measurements with space-resolved PMC techniques have shown that PMC images can be obtained from nanostructured dye sensitization cells. They showed a chaotic distribution of PMC intensities that indicate that local inhomogeneities in the preparation of the nanostructured layer affect photoinduced electron injection. A comparison of photocurrent maps taken at different electrode potentials with corresponding PMC maps promises new insight into the function of this unconventional solar cell type. 

Chen, H.-Y. Kuang, D.-B. Su, C.-Y., Hierarchically micro/nanostructured photoanode materials for dye-sensitized solar cells, y. Mater. Chem. 2012,22 15475-15489. 

Poudel, P. Qiao, Q., One dimensional nanostructure/nanoparticle composites as photoanodes for dye-sensitized solar cells. Nanoscale 2012,4 2826-2838. 

Fig. 17.6 (a) Overview of processes and typical time constants under working conditions (1 sun) in a Ru-dye-sensitized solar cell with iodide/triiodide electrolyte. Recombination processes are indicated by red arrows. Reprinted with permission from [30]. Copyright 2010, American Chemical Society. Electron transport across nanostructured semiconductor films (b) in the absence and (c) in the presence of a nanotube support architecture. Reprinted with permission from [38]. Copyright 2007, American Chemical Society. 

Tang YB, Lee CS, Xu J et al (2010) Incorporation of graphenes in nanostructured Ti02 films via molecular grafting for dye-sensitized solar cell application. ACS Nano 4 3482-3488... 

In summary, at nanostructured tin-oxide semiconductor-aqueous solution interfaces, back ET to molecular dyes is well described by conventional Marcus-type electron-transfer theory. The mechanistic details of the reaction, however, are remarkably sensitive to the nature of the semiconductor-dye binding interactions. The mechanistic differences point, potentially, to differing design strategies for kinetic optimization of the corresponding liquid-junction solar cells. 

Ultimately an understanding of electron transfer processes in dye-sensitized solar cells must be expressed in terms of a model which takes the specific nature of metal oxide surfaces into account [97]. Moreover, the nanostructured devices often involve oxide nanoparticles which approach the limit where quantum-size effects become important. It would be a great step forward if this could be incorporated into an electron-transfer model. 

Ma, T.L., M. Akiyama, E. Abe and I. Imai (2005). High-elHciency dye-sensitized solar cell based on a nitrogen-doped nanostructured titania electrode. Nano Letters, 5(12), 2543-2547. 

Mori S. and Yanigada S. (2006), Ti02-based dye-sensitized solar cell , Chapter 7 in Soga T. (ed., 2006), Nanostructured Materials for Solar Energy Conversion, Elsevier B. V., Amsterdam. 

Tin oxide is an -1ype semiconductor with ca. 3.8 eV energy gap. It is the basic material commonly used in gas sensing, oxidative catalysis, photocatalysis, dye-sensitized solar cell and conductive glass. In order to enhance the performance of SnOa-based device, many studies have been focused on the synthesis of nanostructure Sn02-based materials with controllable microstructure, particle size and physico-chemical properties [1-6]. The sol-gel method was reported to be a simple and reproducible route for one-step synthesis of nanostructured... 

J. Choy, S. Paek, H. Jung, Y. Lee, N. Park, S. Hwang, Nanostructured Ti02 films for dye-sensitized solar cells . Journal of Physic and Chemistry of Solids 67,1308-1311, (2006). 

Keis, K., Bauer, C., Boschloo, G Hagfeldt, A., Westermark, K, Rensmo, H., and Siegbahn, H, (2002) Nanostructured ZnO electrodes for dye-sensitized solar cell applications,... 

Three-dimensionally nanostructured transparent conducting ZnO could serve as electrode for several applications such as dye-sensitized solar cells. Thus, the template-assisted nanopatterning of ZnO via electrodeposition was attempted, following the... 

Fang, X., Yang, Z.B., Qiu, L.B., Sun, H., Pan, S.W., Deng, Luo.Y.F., Peng, H.S., 2014. Core-sheath carbon nanostructured fibers for efficient wire-shaped dye-sensitized solar cells. Adv. Mater. 26,1694-1698. 

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