DYE PHOTOSENSITIZERS AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON DSSC EFFICIENCY: A REVIEW

Abstract

Since early 1990s dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) has been developed by many research groups all over the World. This paper presents a review of researches focusing on photosensitizer influence on DSSC efficiency. Variety of dye substance has been analyzed. The highest efficiency around 11.2% has been noted for ruthenium-based DSSC devices. Natural dyes allowed to reach 4.6%. The most metal-free organic dyes resulted in efficiency ranged from 5% to 9%, however, some of them (e.g. Y123) allowed to obtain devices with efficiencies equal to 10.3%. Co-sensitization is the new approach which results in efficiencies up to 14.3%.

Keywords

• photovoltaic cells
• renewable energy sources
• energy conversion
• DSSC