Query: energy conversion by dye-sensitized

Candidate papers:

abstract: The quality of human life depends to a large degree on the availability of energy. This is threatened unless renewable energy resources can be developed in the near future. Chemistry is expected to make important contributions to identify environmentally friendly solutions of the energy problem. One attractive strategy discussed in this Forum Article is the development of solar cells that are based on the sensitization of mesoscopic oxide films by dyes or quantum dots. These systems have already reached conversion efficiencies exceeding 11% The underlying fundamental processes of light harvesting by the sensitizer, heterogeneous electron transfer from the electronically excited chromophore into the conduction band of the semiconductor oxide, and percolative migration of the injected electrons through the mesoporous film to the collector electrode will be described below in detail. A number of research topics will also be discussed, and the examples for the first outdoor application of such solar cells will be provided.
author_names: Michael Gratzel
title: Solar energy conversion by dye sensitized photovoltaic cells.
venue: Inorganic chemistry
year: 2005

abstract: Development of new counter electrode materials is vital for commercialization of efficient dye sensitized solar cells (DSCs) process. Research on DSCs has been focused mainly on using platinum as counter electrode, which makes them expensive. In this paper, we report DSCs fabricated with high surface area mesoporous carbon thin film with uniform spherical particles as counter electrode. An overall light to electricity efficiency as high as 7.6% has been achieved under illumination of air mass (AM) 1.5 sunlight (100 mW/cm2) In comparison with activated carbon, high surface area mesoporous carbon shows superior performance. Our results show that mesoporous carbon with high specific surface area and uniform pore size distribution proved to be better efficient electrode material for DSCs.
author_names: Pavuluri Srinivasu

Surya Prakash Singh

Ashraful Islam

Liyuan Han
title: Solar Energy Conversion by Dye Sensitized Photovoltaic Cells Using High Surface Area Mesoporous Carbon Counter Electrode
year: 2011

abstract: The achievement of long lived photoinduced redox separation lifetimes has long been a central goal of molecular based solar energy conversion strategies. The longer the redox separation lifetime, the more time available for useful work to be extracted from the absorbed photon energy. Here we describe a novel strategy for dye sensitized solar energy applications in which redox separated lifetimes on the order of milliseconds to seconds can be achieved based on a simple toolkit of molecular components. Specifically, molecular chromophores (C) electron acceptors (A) and electron donors (D) were self assembled on the surfaces of mesoporous, transparent conducting indium tin oxide nanoparticle (nanoITO) electrodes to prepare both photoanode (nanoITO| A C D) and photocathode (nanoITO| D C A) assemblies. Nanosecond transient absorption and steady state photolysis measurements show that the electrodes function microscopically as molecular analogues of semiconductor p/n junctions. These results point to a new chemical strategy for dye sensitized solar energy conversion based on molecular excited states and electron acceptors/donors on the surfaces of transparent conducting oxide nanoparticle electrodes.
author_names: Byron H Farnum

Kyung-Ryang Wee

Thomas J Meyer
title: Self assembled molecular p/n junctions for applications in dye sensitized solar energy conversion.
venue: Nature chemistry
year: 2016

abstract: We investigated a range of different mesoporous NiO electrodes prepared by different research groups and private firms in Europe to determine the parameters which influence good quality photoelectrochemical devices. This benchmarking study aims to solve some of the discrepancies in the literature regarding the performance of p DSCs due to differences in the quality of the device fabrication. The information obtained will lay the foundation for future photocatalytic systems based on sensitized NiO so that new dyes and catalysts can be tested with a standardized material. The textural and electrochemical properties of the semiconducting material are key to the performance of photocathodes. We found that both commercial and non commercial NiO gave promising solar cell and water splitting devices. The NiO samples which had the two highest solar cell efficiency (0.145% and 0.089% also gave the best overall theoretical H2 conversion.
author_names: Christopher J Wood

Gareth H Summers

Charlotte Adele Clark

Nicolas Kaeffer

Max Braeutigam

Lea Roberta Carbone

Luca D'Amario

Ke Fan

Yoann Farre

Stephanie Narbey

Frederic Oswald

Lee A Stevens

Christopher D J Parmenter

Michael W Fay

Alessandro La Torre

Colin E Snape

Benjamin Dietzek

Danilo Dini

Leif Hammarstrom

Yann Pellegrin

Fabrice Odobel

Licheng Sun

Vincent Artero

Elizabeth A Gibson
title: A comprehensive comparison of dye sensitized NiO photocathodes for solar energy conversion.
venue: Physical chemistry chemical physics PCCP
year: 2016

abstract: With the lab made carbon nanotube aerogel (CNA) serving as the counter electrode (CE) dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) operated under solar simulator illumination (100 mW cm 2, AM 1.5 G) demonstrated an overall power conversion efficiency (e) of 8.35% higher than the e of 5.95 and 7.39% of DSSCs with a multi walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) CE and conventional Pt CE, respectively. With only 3.75 wt% Pt nanoparticles to form an aerogel carbon nanotube composite (CNA 3.75 wt% Pt) CE, the corresponding e was further increased to 9.04% The enhanced performance by introducing Pt nanoparticles is mainly attributed to the improved electrocatalytic activity, reduced charge transfer resistance (Rct) at the CE/electrolyte interface, and increased diffusion for the redox couple in the electrolyte. This work provides substantial support for developing low cost Pt loaded nanocomposite CEs to further enhance the DSSC performance.
author_names: Haijun Chen

Tao Liu

Jing Ren

He Hongcai

Yong Cao

Ning Wang

Zhanhu Guo
title: Synergistic carbon nanotube aerogel Pt nanocomposites toward enhanced energy conversion in dye sensitized solar cells
year: 2016

abstract: In this work we report how crucial is the correct design of the porphyrin sensitizers in Dye Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSCs) Only a single atom change switches on the efficiency from 2 3% to over 10% under standard measurement conditions. We used the 2,1,3 benzothiadazole (BDT) group, as a p conjugated linker, for the porphyrin LCVC01, a thiophene moiety for the porphyrin LCVC02 and also the furan group for the LCVC03 porphyrin, as molecular spacers between the BDT fragment and the molecule anchoring group, respectively. These three porphyrins were investigated for their application in DSSC devices. All the devices were characterized and found to achieve a record cell efficiency of 10.5% for LCVC02 but only 3.84% and 2.55% for LCVC01 and LCVC03 respectively. On one hand, the introduction of a thiophene, instead of a furan group, illustrates the importance of introducing a chemical group as a spacer, such as thiophene, between the BDT and the anchoring group. On the other hand, the selection of this group has to be correct because the change of a single atom increases the charge recombination rate and decreases the device performance. These changes can be rationalized by analyzing the dye dipoles and their interactions.
author_names: Lydia Cabau

Challuri Vijay Kumar

Antonio Caselles Moncho

John N Clifford

Nuria Lopez

Emilio Jose Palomares
title: A single atom change "switches on" the solar to energy conversion efficiency of Zn porphyrin based dye sensitized solar cells to 10.5%
year: 2015

abstract: With the lab made carbon nanotube aerogel (CNA) serving as the counter electrode (CE) dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) operated under solar simulator illumination (100 mW cm AM 1.5 G) demonstrated an overall power conversion efficiency (h) of 8.35% higher than the h of 5.95 and 7.39% of DSSCs with a multi walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) CE and conventional Pt CE, respectively. With only 3.75 wt% Pt nanoparticles to form an aerogel carbon nanotube composite (CNA 3.75 wt% Pt) CE, the corresponding h was further increased to 9.04% The enhanced performance by introducing Pt nanoparticles is mainly attributed to the improved electrocatalytic activity, reduced charge transfer resistance (Rct) at the CE/electrolyte interface, and increased diffusion for the redox couple in the electrolyte. This work provides substantial support for developing lowcost Pt loaded nanocomposite CEs to further enhance the DSSC performance.
author_names: Haijun Chen

Tao Liu

Jing Ren

Hongcai He

Yong Cao

Ning Wang

Zhanhu Guo
title: n nanotube aerogel Pt nanocomposites toward enhanced energy conversion in dye sensitized solar cells
year: 2016

abstract: The electron injection energy losses of dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) are among the fundamental problems hindering their successful breakthrough application. Two triazatruxene (TAT) based sensitizers, with one containing a flexible Z type double bond and another a rigid single bond, coded as ZL001 and ZL003, respectively, have been synthesized and applied in DSSCs to probe the energy losses in the process of electron injection. Using time resolved laser spectroscopic techniques in the kinetic study, ZL003 with the rigid single bond promotes much faster electron injection into the conductive band of TiO2 especially in the locally excited state (hot injection) which leads to higher electron density in TiO2 and a higher Voc. The devices based on ZL003 exhibited a champion power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 13.6% with Voc 956 mV, Jsc 20.73 mA cm 2, and FF 68.5% which are among the highest recorded results to date on single dye sensitized DSSCs. An independent certified PCE of 12.4% has been obt.
author_names: Li Zhang

Xichuan Yang

Weihan Wang

Gagik G Gurzadyan

Jiajia Li

Xiaoxin Li

Jincheng An

Ze Yu

Haoxin Wang

Bin Cai

Anders Hagfeldt

Licheng Sun
title: 13.6% Efficient Organic Dye Sensitized Solar Cells by Minimizing Energy Losses of the Excited State
venue: ACS Energy Letters
year: 2019

abstract: As potential third generation photovoltaic cells, dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have attracted extensive research interests and have become one of the hot topics in current research. In this work, a series of DSSCs based on TiO2 photoanodes modified by graphene oxide (GO) and nitrogen reduced graphene oxide (N rGO) were fabricated. Results indicate that N rGO is a better TiO2 photoanode modifier of DSSCs compared to GO. With an increase in the amount of N rGO, the open circuit voltage increases, while both the short circuit current and power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the DSSCs exhibit a maximum at the content of 0.2 wt N rGO. In particular, the maximum PCE of the DSSCs reaches 7.19% in this work, which gains a 13.23% enhancement compared to the PCE of 6.42% of conventional TiO2 DSSCs. The enhancement of the PCE of the DSSCs with N rGO was mainly attributed to the reduction in electron recombination and the increase in electron transfer efficiency after incorporating N rGO into TiO2 photoanodes.
author_names: Zhonghua Xiang

Xing Xing Zhou

Gang Wan

Guoxin Zhang

Dapeng Cao
title: Improving Energy Conversion Efficiency of Dye Sensitized Solar Cells by Modifying TiO2 Photoanodes with Nitrogen Reduced Graphene Oxide
year: 2014

abstract: Even though the solid polymer electrolyte has many intrinsic advantages over the liquid electrolyte, its ionic conductivity and mesopore filling are much poorer than those of the liquid electrolyte, limiting its practical application to electrochemical devices such as dye sensitized solar cells (DSCs) Two major shortcomings associated with utilizing solid polymer electrolytes in DSCs are first discussed, low ionic conductivity and poor pore filling in mesoporous photoanodes for DSCs. In addition, future directions for the successful utilization of solid polymer electrolytes toward improving the performance of DSCs are proposed. For instance, the facilitated mass transport concept could be applied to increase the ionic conductivity. Modified biphasic and triple phasic structures for the photoanode are suggested to take advantage of both the liquid and solid state properties of electrolytes.
author_names: Donghoon Song

Woohyung Cho

Jung Hyun Lee

Yong Soo Kang
title: Toward Higher Energy Conversion Efficiency for Solid Polymer Electrolyte Dye Sensitized Solar Cells: Ionic Conductivity and TiO2 Pore Filling.
venue: The journal of physical chemistry letters
year: 2014