Interfacial Engineering in Functional Materials for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

2 Function of Photoanode: Charge Transfer Dynamics, Challenges, and Alternative Strategies

A. Dennyson Savariraj^1,2, and R.V. Mangalaraja^1,3

¹ Department of Materials Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Advanced Ceramics and Nanotechnology Laboratory, University of Concepcion, Concepcion, Chile

² Department of Chemical Engineering, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

³ Technological Development Unit (UDT), University of Concepcion, Coronel Industrial Park, Coronel, Chile

2.1 Introduction

The increase in population demanded heavy energy requirements that accelerated the depletion of fossil fuels [1]. Among several renewable resource‐based alternatives, dye‐sensitized solar cell (DSSC) is one of the cost‐effective and potential substitutes to silicon solar cells that emerged in the early 1990s in the field of photovoltaics, as it involves inexpensive components and simple fabrication process. DSSC is entirely different from the conventional p/n junction solar cells in terms of operating principle; however, it adopts the principle of natural photosynthesis process and, therefore, is it is often addressed as artificial photosynthesis. The monolayer of dye molecules on the photoanode functions like chlorophyll in plants and absorbs the incident light to generate both positive and negative charge carriers in the cell.

The light‐harvesting efficiency of DSSC relies upon the photoanode that is comprised of wide band gap materials ...