Interfacial Engineering in Functional Materials for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

3 Nanoarchitectures as Photoanodes

Hari Murthy

Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, CHRIST (Deemed to be) University, Kanminike, Bengaluru, India

3.1 Introduction

Photovoltaic (PV) devices are the proficient way to obtain electrical energy from solar energy to meet the ever‐increasing global energy demand. Silicon (Si)‐based PV cells have reached an efficiency of 24.7% though at the cost of sophisticated technologies and expensive techniques [1], hampering low‐cost production and limiting their widespread utilization [2]. Some of the drawbacks of the Si‐PV devices were overcome by second‐generation thin‐film PV devices that are lightweight, flexible, and low‐cost but are less efficient. The thin‐film PV devices suffer from complex deposition process, difficulty in controlling stoichiometry and the presence of structural defects that adversely affects their performance [3]. The third‐generation PV technology including organic photovoltaics (OPVs), dye‐sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), quantum‐dot dye‐sensitized solar cells (QD‐DSSCs), and perovskite solar cells have fulfilled the condition of low‐cost simple fabrication process, and the research focuses is on enhancing the efficiency, performance, and stability [2]. OPVs possess low efficiency but consist of toxic materials, while perovskite solar cells suffer from moisture instability and poor reproducibility. DSSCs offer a lot of advantages such as excellent stability, low toxicity, good conversion ...