Progress on Electrolytes Development in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Abstract

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have been intensely researched for more than two decades. Electrolyte formulations are one of the bottlenecks to their successful commercialization, since these result in trade-offs between the photovoltaic performance and long-term performance stability. The corrosive nature of the redox shuttles in the electrolytes is an additional limitation for industrial-scale production of DSSCs, especially with low cost metallic electrodes. Numerous electrolyte formulations have been developed and tested in various DSSC configurations to address the aforementioned challenges. Here, we comprehensively review the progress on the development and application of electrolytes for DSSCs. We particularly focus on the improvements that have been made in different types of electrolytes, which result in enhanced photovoltaic performance and long-term device stability of DSSCs. Several recently introduced electrolyte materials are reviewed, and the role of electrolytes in different DSSC device designs is critically assessed. To sum up, we provide an overview of recent trends in research on electrolytes for DSSCs and highlight the advantages and limitations of recently reported novel electrolyte compositions for producing low-cost and industrially scalable solar cell technology.

There Is a Future for N-Heterocyclic Carbene Iron(II) Dyes in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells: Improving Performance through Changes in the Electrolyte

“…Since every part of the cell contributes to the overall performance of a DSC, optimization of semiconductors [9][10][11][12][13], sensitizers [14][15][16][17][18][19][20], counter electrodes [21][22][23], and electrolytes [16,[24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32] are all critical. The most widely used sensitizers with photoconversion efficiencies (PCE) of up to 11% are ruthenium-oligopyridine complexes [16,[33][34][35].…”

“…However, tuning of electrolyte composition can also remarkably enhance the PCE and, as shown for other dyes [31], has the potential to make iron-sensitizers a promising alternative to ruthenium-based compounds. It has been demonstrated that both the redox couple and the components of the electrolyte have a critical influence on the PCE, and this effect originates from its role as a charge transfer medium [32,47]. In this investigation, we focus on the electrolyte However, the use of metals with low natural abundancies significantly increases the cost and sustainability of DSCs [36].…”

“…Optimization of electrolyte compositions for metal-free (organic) and ruthenium(II) dyes [16,31,32] and bis(diimine)copper(I) dyes [22,40,54,59] has been a critical part of improving the PCEs of DSCs containing these different types of dyes.…”

Electrochromic Metallo–Organic Nanoscale Films: A Molecular Mix and Match Approach to Thermally Robust and Multistate Solid‐State Devices

“…Electronic devices including batteries, [20] transistors, [21,22] solar cells, [23][24][25] and electrochromic devices (ECDs) have been prepared using thermo-or photocurable solid-gel polymer electrolytes. [19,[26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36] The challenge to generate promising ECDs is complex.…”

Solid-State Solar Energy Conversion from WO3 Nano and Microstructures with Charge Transportation and Light-Scattering Characteristics

“…However, solid-state electrolytes with highly crystalline polymers show lower mobility and ionic conductivity than liquid-state electrolytes. To reduce the polymer crystallization, additional inorganic nanofillers can be introduced [17]. In addition, this improves the free volume, thereby improving the ion conductivity and mobility of the solid electrolyte [18].…”