Aerosol OT/Water System Coupled with Triiodide/Iodide (I₃⁻/I⁻) Redox Electrolytes for Highly Efficient Dye‐Sensitized Solar Cells

Abstract

Dye‐sensitized solar cells (DSCs) are considered to be a promising alternative to Si‐based photovoltaic cells. The electrolyte of the DSC primarily uses triiodide/iodide (I3−/I−) as a redox couple. Therefore, it is essential to understand the regeneration and recombination kinetics of the I3−/I− redox couples in the device. In this context, controlling the total and local concentrations of the I3−/I− redox couples is an important parameter that can influence the DSC performance. Here, we propose that the introduction of a sodium bis (2‐ethylhexyl) sulfosuccinate (AOT)/water system to the I3−/I− electrolyte enables the control of the concentration of the redox couples, which consequently achieves a high power conversion efficiency of ∼11% for ∼1000 h (under 1 sun illumination) owing to the enhanced dye‐regeneration efficiency and the reduced recombination rate. This novel concept assists in the comprehension of the regeneration and recombination kinetics and develops highly efficient DSCs.

Performance enhancement for water based dye-sensitized solar cells via addition of ionic surfactants

“…Compared with organic solvents, water is earth abundant, inexpensive and non-toxic which could be a good candidate to replace organic solvents for liquid electrolyte DSSCs. 8,9 Recently, 100% water based DSSCs have been studied by several groups. [10][11][12][13][14] For example, water based liquid electrolyte DSSCs with an efficiency of 2.4% were achieved under 1 sun light illumination using the I À /I 3 À redox couple.…”

“…However, other studies conicted with the above and suggested that the introduction of an anionic surfactant, sodium bis(2-ethylhexyl) sulfosuccinate (AOT), increased the hydrophobicity of the dye-coated TiO 2 lm by preventing water from approaching the dye and reducing the recombination rate. 8 So what is the effect of surfactants on water based DSSCs? The reported ndings pushed us to analyze the interface properties of TiO 2 lms and surfactant doped water electrolytes.…”

Extremely robust photocurrent generation of titanium dioxide photoanodes bio-sensitized with recombinant microalgal light-harvesting proteins

“…Our best solar energy to electricity conversion efficiencies (η ~ 0.3%) were comparable to those determined in other published studies (η ~ 0.5% 10 ; η ~ 0.8% 8 ). Conversion efficiencies obtained with LHCII-based bio-dyes were, however, far lower than those reported for Ruthenium-based organic dyes (η in the range of 3–11%) 17,18 , frequently used in conjunction with TiO 2 photoanodes.…”

A tri-functional TiO2photoelectrode: single crystalline nanowires directly grown on nanoparticles for dye-sensitized solar cells

“…4b and Table 1). h cc can be estimated by the two values determined from the above IMPS and IMVS by adopting the following equation: [40][41][42]…”