Low cost ‘green’ dye sensitized solar cells based on New Fuchsin dye with aqueous electrolyte and platinum-free counter electrodes

Recent advances in eco-friendly and cost-effective materials towards sustainable dye-sensitized solar cells

“…A pH buffer and a surfactant were used to regulate the pH of the electrolyte and allow the permeation of the electrolyte into the hydrophobic sensitized TiO 2 ; unfortunately, the PCE was the half of that of the iodine-based reference (Table 2, entry 3). The same redox couple was adopted by Kokal et al, 220 who reported an aqueous DSSC with an inexpensive magenta dye (new fuchsin) and a platinum-free CE based on CoS deposited on carbon fabric. Here, a remarkable efficiency of 2.88% was reached (Table 2, entry 4), which can be considered, as a first approximation, cost-effective.…”

“…208,[222][223][224][225][226][227] This type of complex shows negligible structural changes when switching from the oxidized to reduced form, which means minimal energy loss and fast electron transfer. 220 Their usually more positive redox potential guarantees higher theoretical V OC values compared to that of conventional redox mediators (iodine and cobalt); on the other hand, less efficient dye regeneration can be expected due to the limited ΔG of this process. However, transient absorption spectroscopy con-firmed an almost quantitative dye regeneration yield.…”

Xanthan‐Based Hydrogel for Stable and Efficient Quasi‐Solid Truly Aqueous Dye‐Sensitized Solar Cell with Cobalt Mediator

“…[ 22–24 ] Therefore, researchers started considering water‐based DSSCs, i.e., devices using up to 100% water as a solvent for redox couple and additives. [ 25 ] Yet, this paradigm shift still requires a whole rethink of the cell components aiming at effectively working in an aqueous environment; therefore, new photoelectrodes, [ 26 ] sensitizers, [ 27 ] and counter electrodes [ 28,29 ] have been (and continue to be) proposed to target emerging issues, e.g., electrode wettability, hydrolysis of anchoring groups, and solubility of higher amounts of redox shuttles.…”

Ultrafast Excited State Relaxation Dynamics of New Fuchsine‐ a Triphenylmethane Derivative Dye

“…Triphenylmethane(TPM) dyes are among the most explored class of synthetic organic molecules for fundamental understanding due to their interesting molecular structures, [1,2] ultrafast relaxation dynamics and peculiar electronic state properties, [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] and numerous practical applications utilizing photo-induced processes as a photosensitizer for solar cells, [16][17][18][19][20] textile industry, [21,22] CO 2 capture, [23] organic electronics, [24] photo-catalysis [25,26] and nonlinear optics. [27][28][29][30] Among the various molecules belonging to the TPM dye family, malachite green (MG), crystal violet (CV), basic fuchsine (BF), brilliant green (BG) are most explored and reported.…”