Patent ID: 6069313
Filing Date: 2000-05-30
Classification: H01G,Y02E

Abstract:
A battery of photovoltaic cells, characterized in that it consists of a monolithic assembly of a plurality of series-connected photovoltaic elements arranged as parallel elongated stripes on a common electrically insulating transparent substrate (1), each said element comprising a dye-sensitized photoanode made of a porous layer (4) of a polycrystalline semiconductor, a counterelectrode made of a porous layer (6) of an electrically conducting material, separated from said photoanode by an intermediate porous layer (5) of an electrically insulating material, wherein the pores of said layers (4,5,6) are at least partially filled with an electron transferring electrolyte, and an intermediate layer (2) of a transparent electrically conducting material interposed between the substrate (1) and the layer (4) constituting the photoanode of each said element, the respective electrically conducting intermediate layers (2) of two adjacent elements being separated from each other by a continuous elongated gap (3) and the layer (6) constituting the counterelectode of the first element of the series being electrically connected with a first terminal (9) of the battery while the layers (6) of the counterelectrodes of the other elements are electrically connected, over said gap (3) with the intermediate electrically conducting layer (2) of an adjacent element while being electrically insulated from each other and the electrically conducting intermediate layer (2) of the last element of the series being electrically connected with a second terminal (10) of the battery, and said assembly being covered with an electrically insulating liquid-tight top-cover (8).