
Chapter 43
Nonconventional Sensitized Mesoscopic
(Gr
¨
atzel) Solar Cells
Michael Gr
¨
atzel
Laboratory of Photonics and Interfaces, Institute of Chemical Science and Engineering,
Faculty of Basic Science, Ecole Polytechnique F
´
ed
´
erale de Lausanne, Switzerland
Following their inception in 1985,
1–6
dye sensitized mesoscopic
solar cells (DSCs), also named Gr
¨
atzel cells after their inventor, have
emerged over the past two decades as non-conventional contenders
to p-n junction inorganic and photovoltaic (PV) devices. The DSC is
the only photovoltaic device that uses molecules to absorb photons
and convert them to electric charges without the need of excitonic ...