Gratzel solar cells

Figure 1 Schematic representation of a Gratzel solar cell. Sub-band-gap light absorption leads to the formation of the sensitizer excited state, followed by electron injection into the conduction band of the high-area nanocrystalline semiconductor. The electrons can be drawn into a circuit to do useful work and returned to the system through the redox mediator, the I/Ij" couple, at the counterelectrode.

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

O Regan B, Gratzel M (1991) A low-cost, high-efficiency solar cell based on dye-sensitized... 

Gratzel M (1994) NanocrystaUine solar cells. Renew Energy 5 118-133 Peter LM, Ponomarev EA, Franco G, Shaw NJ (1999) Aspects of the photoelectrochemistry of nanocrystalhne systems. Electrochim Acta 45 549-560 Peter L (2007) Transport, trapping and interfacial transfer of electrons in dye-sensitized nanocrystalline solar cells. J Electroanal Chem 599 233-240... 

Bach U, Lupo D, Comte P, Moser JE, Weissdrtel E, Salbeck J, Spreitzer H, Gratzel M (1998) Solid-state dye-sensitized mesoporous TiOa solar cells with high photon-to-electron conversion efficiencies. Nature 395 583-585... 

Plass R, Pelet S, Krueger J, Gratzel M, Bach U (2002) Quantum dot sensitization of organic-inorganic hybrid solar cells. J Phys Chem B 106 7578-7580... 

Zukalova, M. Zukal, A. Kavan, L. Nazeeruddin, M. K. Liska, P Gratzel, M. 2005. Organized mesoporous Ti02 films exhibiting greatly enhanced performance in dye-sensitized solar cells. Nano Lett. 5 1789-1792. 

Adapted from M. Gratzel, Solar Energy Conversion by Dye-Sensitized Photovoltaic Cells , Inorganic Chemistry, Volume 44 (20), 2005 American Chemical Society... 

Gratzel, M., Perspectives for dye-sensitized nanocrystalline solar cells. Progress in photovoltaics research and applications 2000, 8,171-185. 

Gratzel, M. Highly efficient nanocrystalUne photovoltaic devices. Plat. Met. Rev., 1994, 38, 151-159 Gratzel, M. Dye-sensitized solar cells, J. Photochem. Photobiol. C-Photochem. Rev., 2003, 4(2), 145-153. 

Campus F, Bonhote P, Gratzel M, Heinen S, Walder L (1999) Solar Energy Mater Solar Cells 56 281... 

Kuang D, Ito S, Wenger B, Klein C, Moser JE, Baker RH, Zakeeruddin SM, Gratzel M (2006). High molar extinction coefficient heteroleptic ruthenium complxes for thin-film dye sensitized solar cells. J Am Chem Soc 128 4146-4154... 

Wang P, Zakeeruddin SM, Moser JE, Nazeeruddin MK, Sekiguchi T, Gratzel M (2003) A stable-quasi-solid state dye-sensitized solar cell with amphiphilic ruthenium sensitizer and polymer gel electrolyte. Nature Mater 2 402-406... 

Gratzel M (2005) Mesoscopic solar cells for electricity and hydrogen production from sunlight. Chem Lett 34 8-13... 

Since Gratzel et al. introduced the dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSG) in 1991 using Ti02 films as anode electrodes [262], these cells have become the focus of intense investigation. Its low cost and relatively high efficiencies for sunlight conversion... 

In dye sensitized solar cells (or Gratzel cells [180, 181]), a redox mediator is required to allow charges to be transported from the mesoporous and light sensitive Ti02 film to the cathode. Although other systems have been studied, the equilibrium potential, mobility, and stability of the h j system are most suitable for this application and most cells developed to date employ the iodine redox system in an organic solvent environment. 

Hagfeldt, A. Lindquist, S.-E. Gratzel, M. Solar Energy Mater. Solar Cells 1994, 32, 245-257. 

Figure 1 Schematic structure of dye-sensitized nanocrystalline Ti02 solar cell, Gratzel cell. (From Ref. 12.)...

Gratzel and co-workers reported an N3-dye-sensitized nanocrystalline Ti02 solar cell using a hole-transport material such as 2,2, 7,7 -tetrakis (N, N-di-p-methoxyphenyl-amine) 9,9 -spirobifluorene (OMeTAD) as shown in Fig. 17, as a solid electrolyte [143]. OMeTAD was spin-coated on the surface of the N3 dye/Ti02 electrode and then Au was deposited by vacuum evaporation as the counterelectrode. The cell efficiency was 0.7% under 9.4 mW/cm2 irradiation, and 3.18 mA/cm2 of Jsc was obtained under AM 1.5 (100 mW/cm2) [143]. The maximum IPCE was 33% at 520 nm. The rate for electron injection from OMeTAD into cations of N3 dyes has been estimated as 3 psec, which is faster than that of the I ion case [144]. 

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