Nanostructured functional materials for advanced three-dimensional (3D) solar cells

Abstract

Advancements in dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) technology are occurring at an everincreasing rate, as the development of novel carbon-based materials, the increasing research into new 3D surface morphologies and cell design, and the focus on the development of new sensitizers and electrolytes have allowed many new possibilities for DSSCs. Solar cells that are three-dimensionally structured offer significant advantages over traditional crystalline / semicrystalline panels in that they can convert incident photons that strike them at large incident angles, can be flexible / used in applications which require non-rigid materials, and can be substantially cheaper to produce than traditional panels, especially with the replacement of more expensive, traditional electrode materials by carbon materials in the working / counter electrode.The use of carefully selected and engineered sensitizers like quantum dots with these threedimensionally structured solar cells have seen them achieve ever-increasing power conversion efficiencies, and it's likely that they will soon rival traditional crystalline / semi-crystalline panels for both mass power generation and use in more niche applications such as flexible photovoltaic textile fibers. This review covers DSSCs constructed with several different materials, and the advantages and disadvantages of a variety of cell designs.

Perovskite Solar Cells: From the Laboratory to the Assembly Line

“…C) Schematic of the setup used to prepare solidified crystals on a glass/ITO/PEDOT:PSS substrate by electrospray technique. Adapted and reprinted with permission from references .…”

“…The transition from laboratory to the industrial scale, that is, modules manufacturing, has often represented an insurmountable obstacle in the field of hybrid photovoltaic cells. [126][127][128] In this scenario, the identification of suitable techniques for depositingt he activem aterial [129] and the other cell components on module areas would be av ery important milestone in the PSC case. [130][131][132] Spin-coatingi st ypically used to develop small-area proof of principle devices,e ven if large-area modules are not compatible with this technique.…”

“…The transition from laboratory to the industrial scale, that is, modules manufacturing, has often represented an insurmountable obstacle in the field of hybrid photovoltaic cells . In this scenario, the identification of suitable techniques for depositing the active material and the other cell components on module areas would be a very important milestone in the PSC case …”

Functional materials, device architecture, and flexibility of perovskite solar cell

“…Among the different renewable sources, solar energy is one of the most promising technologies to meet the growing global energy demands and to resolve or mitigate the everincreasing energy crisis due to the depletion of fossil fuels [2]. Although only 1% of energy production was reported to be solar-derived in 2013, solar power is projected to become the most significant source of energy by 2050 [3]. Solar energy has several key advantages over other renewable technologies, namely the global distribution of sunlight (in contrast to wind, geothermal, and hydroelectric resources that are localized to certain areas), the lack of hazardous waste generation (in contrast to nuclear energy), and the decentralized nature of solar energy generation [4].…”

Experimental and Theoretical Investigation of the Photoelectrical Properties of Tetrabromophenol Blue- and Bromoxylenol Blue-Based Solar Cells

“…Working on DSSCs has five steps [14][15][16]: (1) dyes can gain electrons from the ground state to an excited state by incident photons; (2) the dyes are excited by incident photons, and then electrons inject into the conduction band of the semiconductor; (3) the electrons are gathered in the TiO 2 film, which can transfer to the outer circuit, and the electrons return to the counter electrode; (4) the dye molecules in oxidation state are deoxidized by the electrolyte in reduction; and (5) the electrolyte in oxidation state is reduced after receiving the electron at the conducting glass, accordingly, completing a cycle.…”