Luminescent Spectral Conversion to Improve the Performance of Dye‐Sensitized Solar Cells

Abstract

Relative to the broadband solar spectrum, a narrow range of spectral absorption of photovoltaic (PV) devices is considered an important determinant that the efficiency of light harvesting of these devices is less than unity. Having the narrowest spectral response to solar radiation among all PV devices, dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) suffer severely from this loss. Luminescent spectral conversion provides a mechanism to manipulate and to adapt the incident solar spectrum by converting, through photoluminescence, the energies of solar photons into those that are more effectively captured by a PV device. This mechanism is particularly helpful for DSSCs because there is much flexibility in both the choice of the light-harvesting materials and the architecture of the DSSC. Here we review and discuss recent advances in the field of luminescent spectral conversion for DSSCs. The focus is on the architectural design of DSSCs, and the complications, advantages and new functionalities offered by each of their configurations are discussed. The loss mechanisms are examined and important parameters governing the spectral conversion mechanism of a DSSC are introduced.

Large area quantum dot luminescent solar concentrators for use with dye-sensitised solar cells

“…These include the development of synthetic methodologies to enable the incorporation of high QD dopant concentrations, the design of 3D large-area prototypes of sufficient optical quality and the introduction of standardised characterisation methods to ensure reproducible reporting of the optical efficiency. Moreover, LSCs and spectral conversion approaches in general have been relatively overlooked for implementation with third generation photovoltaic devices such as dye-sensitised solar cells (DSSCs) [34][35][36] and perovskite solar cells. 37 To address these limitations, here we report the fabrication of large-area LSCs by dispersion of green-emitting CdSe@ZnS/ZnS QDs with a composition gradient shell 38 in a pLMA-co-EGDM matrix.…”

Photophysical, electrochemical, and DFT studies of the novel azacrown-bridged dinuclear ruthenium dye sensitizers for solar cells

“…Several ruthenium bipyridyl derivatives [2,5,6] have been explored since the seminal work of O'Regan and Grätzel [7] on the photocatalytic activities of prototypical complexes. Their relatively good chemical stability, broad metal-to-ligand charge transfer (MLCT) absorption bands, strong luminescence, and suitable ground and excited states potentials [8] make ruthenium bipyridyl-based complexes ideal candidates not only as dye-sensitizers but also in the field of catalysis [9,10] and medicine [11][12][13]. Strong luminescent properties of the dye extend the light-harvesting ability of a DSSC, where the parts of the incident radiation from the wavelengths that the dye absorbs poorly are converted to wavelengths at which the dyes absorbs better, through either high-energy photons which are converted to lowenergy photons or the reverse; designated as down-conversion (DC) and up-conversion (UC), respectively [8].…”

Designing an efficient graphene quantum dot-filled luminescent down shifting layer to improve the stability and efficiency of perovskite solar cells by simple optical modeling

“…The long wavelength, downshied photons are absorbed and converted into electricity by the underlying solar cell more efficiently, therefore improving its current generation and the overall PCE. 15 This approach has been developed to overcome different stability and spectral mismatch losses by different spectral conversion processes such as down shiing, down conversion and up conversion in various photovoltaic (PV) devices. [16][17][18][19][20] Conversion of UV light to visible photons by luminescent down shiing materials has also been used to overcome the degradation of perovskite material under irradiation of UV light.…”

“…The luminescent material should also possess a high luminescence quantum efficiency (QE), large absorption coefficient, adequate photochemical stability and low price. 15,23 Graphene quantum dots (GQDs) are zerodimensional materials with average sizes less than 10 nm that have size-tunable bandgaps up to 3 eV. They have exhibited novel light absorption/emission phenomena.…”