The revival of dye-sensitized solar cells

The scientific progress in the field of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) is marked by a recent number of important breakthroughs. DSCs provide a technically and economically credible alternative concept to present-day p-n junction photovoltaic devices. Relentless efforts helped to achieve high efficiencies with DSCs. Some of the major progress was made by developing new panchromatic rigid structure dye systems, new redox shuttles and hole transport materials. Under full sun illumination (standard AM 1.5 G), conversion efficiencies have reached over 13% with Zn porphyrins and 14% with co-sensitized organic dyes. The new redox couples and electrolytes are able to regenerate the dye at less than 0.2 V. Current research and development is the perquisite to improve efficiencies beyond 20% for future applications with improved stability and sustainability.