Cobalt-Based Electrolytes for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells: Recent Advances towards Stable Devices

Redox mediators based on cobalt complexes allowed dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) to achieve efficiencies exceeding 14%, thus challenging the emerging class of perovskite solar cells. Unfortunately, cobalt-based electrolytes demonstrate much lower long-term stability trends if compared to the traditional iodide/triiodide redox couple. In view of the large-scale commercialization of cobalt-based DSCs, the scientific community has recently proposed various approaches and materials to increase the stability of these devices, which comprise gelling agents, crosslinked polymeric matrices and mixtures of solvents (including water). This review summarizes the most significant advances recently focused towards this direction, also suggesting some intriguing way to fabricate third-generation cobalt-based photoelectrochemical devices stable over time.