A Photoelectrochemical Study of Hybrid Organic and Donor—Acceptor Dyes as Sensitizers for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Abstract

An investigation on the photoelectrochemical and sensitizing properties of two different hybrid organic dyes, anchored as sensitizers on mesoporous TiO2, in Grätzel solar cells, is presented. Firstly, we studied the absorption properties of the C106 sensitizer, a Ru polypyridine complex, and of the Y123, an organic push and pull dye. In this work, we characterized these two dyes, employing two different electrolytes, with similar experimental condition and device parameters. From the J–V curves and IPCE photo action spectra, we performed an inedited bifacial study based on the comparison of their photovoltaic performances, exploiting several backgrounds (black or white). Among the obtained results from this study, we found the best bifaciality factor of 93% for C106 and the best power conversion efficiency of 12.8% for Y123. These results represent, concerning these two dyes and to the best of our knowledge, some of the highest values in literature.

Keywords

• dye-sensitized solar cells
• solar energy conversion
• hybrid organic photovoltaics
• bifacial solar devices