A Review on Dye Sensitized Solar Cells

Shriya Kumar, Neeraja.B

B.Tech Chemical Engineering, SSN College of Engineering, Old

Mahabalipuram Road, Kalavakkam, Tamil Nadu 603110

ABSTRACT

Over the last decade, concerns over developing a sustainable source of energy
has been the most sought after topic for scientific and industrial developments.
The Dye Sensitized Solar Cell (DSSC) is one such find. This paper is a review
on the developments of the DSSCs focusing mainly on the anode and the dye.
Initially, the anode used was a fluorine doped tin oxide coated with a layer of
titanium dioxide and to increase its ability to absorb electrons it was immersed
in Ruthenium-polypyridine dye.

DSSCs with natural dyes like chlorophyll, anthocyanins etc. have low
efficiencies compared to synthetic dyes because of their weak interactions
with the titanium dioxide. Quantum dots are also being considered as potential
organic dye alternatives. Metal oxides like titanium oxide, zinc oxide, and
stannic oxide have been used as the semiconductor material. However,
experiments show that DSSCs based on ZnO and SnO2 yield lower
efficiencies in comparison to TiO2. Several different morphologies of metal
oxides have been experimented with. DSSCs with TiO2 spheres are shown to
have greater efficiency (9.35%) when compared to nanoparticles. With
changes in length, the nanowires and nanotubes are found to have better
energy converting capacities when compared to nanoparticles. Mesoscopic
TiO2 films when doped with gold nanoclusters have photo conversion
efficiencies of 2.3%. Applications of DSSCs include using the DSSC solar
panels for charging of portable electronic devices.