An overview of the Challenges in the commercialization of dye sensitized solar cells

Dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) are a type of photovoltaic device that have received widespread attention in recent years. In comparison with silicon photovoltaic cells, DSSCs exhibit some specific advantages including easy fabrication procedures, low manufacturing cost and compatibility with flexible substrates. In spite of the advantages mentioned, from the industrial point of view, the efficiency and the long term stability of the DSSCs system have been subject of concern during the past years of development of this technology. In order to solve these problems, numerous research efforts have been devoted to the engineering and manufacturing of devices that could meet the standards of the photovoltaic cells market for various applications, but the low efficiency and stability have remained as the major challenges in development of DSSCs over the past 25 year. This review focuses on the obstacles and restrictions in the fabrication and commercialization of DSSCs. Losses-in-potential as a limiting efficiency and degradation processes are discussed and external effective factors on the stability of DSSC such as thermal and light soaking stresses, environmental conditions and issues related to the sealing have been investigated in detail. Also, commercial photovoltaic technology of DSSCs in term of efficiency, stability and lifetime is compared to the different types of photovoltaic solar cells. Results indicate that despite the many attractive features of this technology, the transition from laboratory to industry and outdoor applications has been hampered by a number of issues.