Developing photocathode materials for p-type dye-sensitized solar cells

Abstract

Dye-sensitized solar cells are photoelectrochemical devices, which are of great interest due to their ease of fabrication and attractive design.

Molecular trapping in two-dimensional chiral organic Kagomé nanoarchitectures composed of Baravelle spiral triangle enantiomers

“…It has also recently been exploited to develop artificial photosynthesis devices for low-cost CO 2 -free hydrogen photo production 24 . Recent progress in the development of more efficient dye-sensitized solar cells and dyesensitized photocathodes is reported in review articles 25,26 . The electronic properties of an organic layer can be drastically modified by the local arrangement of the molecules.…”

Towards sustainable and efficient p-type metal oxide semiconductor materials in dye-sensitised photocathodes for solar energy conversion

“…While this perspective focuses on the semiconductor materials, it should be noted that there are multiple ways to improve the efficiency, and focusing on the individual components as well as their interaction is significant to move forward. Advances in the dyes, [21][22][23][24][25][26] electrolytes 19,21,[27][28][29] or in general 17,21 can be found in the literature.…”

“…Due to its large band gap of 3.6-4.0 eV, 38 NiO exhibits good transparency for thin films, despite the underlying brown colour due to Ni 3+ ions that are present as a result of Ni 2+ vacancies that form during sintering. 21 In an investigation of a range of different mesoporous NiO electrodes prepared by different research groups, Gibson et al 39 could show that the performance of NiO depends on not only the crystallite size and film thickness but also on sintering temperature, all of which influence the crystallinity and surface states. Furthermore, Hammarström et al 40 found out that these surface states are involved in hole trapping and act as tunnelling sites on a sub-ps timescale which lead to rapid recombination with the redox mediator.…”

“…A graph was made with data from the literature. 21,[34][35][36][37] transparent metal oxides is n-type degenerate tin-doped indium oxide (ITO) that has shown to be able to both accept and donate electrons from and to the photosensitiser if dye-coated. 47,48 Unfortunately, indium is one of the critical elements in the periodic table (Fig.…”

“…6). 73,74 Zhu et al 63 21 This underlines the importance of tailoring the sensitisers to the individual semiconductor metal oxides and their properties, which could pave the way for more efficient photocathodes. Unlike most of the aforementioned p-type metal oxide semiconductors, perovskite lanthanum iron oxide (LaFeO 3 ) has not been employed for solar cells but only in dye-sensitised photoelectrochemical cells for H 2 generation.…”