Rational Design of Solar Cells for Efficient Solar Energy Conversion

3Natural Dye‐Sensitized Solar Cells – Strategies and Measures

N. Prabavathy¹, R. Balasundaraprabhu¹, and Dhayalan Velauthapillai²

¹ Centre for Surface Science, PSG College of Technology, India

² Faculty of Engineering, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Norway

3.1 Introduction

Although the first and second generation solar cell technologies based on silicon and inorganic materials such as CdTe, GaAs have reached appreciable efficiencies, the current production and installation costs of these solar technologies hardly make it competitive on an energy market still dominated by cheap fossil fuels. In the last few decades, there has been a lot of research interest on various other materials and structures to produce low cost, flexible, and easily manufactured photovoltaics. Dye‐sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have been the center of new research interests in the solar energy field ever since Graetzel and O’Regan reported that a thin film of titanium dioxide (TiO₂) could work as an effective solar cell when it is dye‐sensitized. The principle of DSSC is artificial photosynthesis as in plants [1]. Plants follow a set of light‐dependent reactions to prepare their own food in the form of energy. These reactions are called the Z‐scheme of photosynthesis. Studying nature helps in understanding the science. One such comparison of the Z‐scheme of photosynthesis in plants with dye‐sensitized solar cells helps in understanding the working mechanism of DSSCs.

Generally, DSSC are ...