Ultrafast and Fast Charge Separation Processes in Real Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Publication date: Available online 15 December 2015 Source:Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology C: Photochemistry Reviews Author(s): Cristina Martín, Marcin Ziółek, Abderrazzak Douhal The increasing global energy consumption and the simultaneous non-renewable resources depletion with their rising contamination levels, make the present energy scenario unsustainable. Among all the renewable energies, the sun's energy through its direct conversion into electricity is one of the best alternatives. In particular, since 1991 dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have attracted considerable interest from the scientific and commercial communities due to their promising characteristics as solar light converters. Nevertheless, even though there have been many efforts to increase the photoconversion efficiency through the photovoltaic parameters improvement using novel materials and device construction approaches, the efficiency and stability are still open challenges. On this regard, several approaches and techniques are being used to analyze the dependence of the overall efficiency on these parameters. In particular, the fast and ultrafast time-resolved spectroscopy techniques have provided advances towards unraveling the rate constants and quantum yields of the individual processes taking place in sensitized films in air as well as in complete DSSCs. Thus, the aim of this review is to discuss the main recent findings and the importance of the application of these tech...

Source: Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology C: Photochemistry Reviews - December 17, 2015 Category: Chemistry Source Type: research