To optimize the conversion efficiency of plastic dye-sensitized solar cells fabricated by the electrophoretic deposition technique, anatase TiO2 nanoparticles of various sizes from 10 nm to 27 nm have been synthesized via a simple hydrothermal process. The obtained TiO2 nanoparticles have been characterized by X-ray diffraction and high resolution transmission electron microscopy, which confirm...

4',6-Diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) and Hoechst 33342 (H33342) were used as novel energy relay dyes (ERDs) for an efficient energy transfer to the N719 dye in I(-)/I3(-) based liquid-junction dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The introduction of the ERDs, either as an additive in the electrolyte or as a co-adsorbent, greatly enhanced the power conversion efficiencies (PCEs), mainly because o...

Photovoltaic characteristics of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) using TiO2 nanotube (TNT) arrays as photoanodes were investigated. The TNT arrays were 3.3, 11.5, and 20.6 μm long with the pore diameters of 50, 78.6, and 98.7 nm, respectively. The longest TNT array of 20.6 μm in length showed enhanced photovoltaic performances of 3.87% with significantly increased photocurrent density of 8.26...

The dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) have been regarded as one of the most promising new generation solar cells. Tremendous research efforts have been invested to improve the efficiency of solar energy conversion which is generally determined by the light harvesting efficiency, electron injection efficiency and undesirable electron lifetime. In this review, various characteristics of dye-...

Dye-sensitized solar cells present promising low-cost alternatives to the conventional Silicon (Si)-based solar cells. The counter electrode  generally consists of Pt deposited onto FTO plate. Since Pt is rare and expensive metal, nanostructured carbonaceous materials have been widely investigated as a promising alternative to replace it. Carbon nanotubes  have shown significant properties such...

BACKGROUND Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have garnered a lot of attention in recent years. The solar energy to power conversion efficiency of a DSSC is influenced by various components of the cell such as the dye, electrolyte, electrodes and additives among others leading to varying experimental configurations. A large number of metal-based and metal-free dye sensitizers have now been repo...

Eu(3+),Tb(3+) doped and undoped NiO films were deposited on TiO2 by a sol-gel spin-coating method as the photoanodes of dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). A comparative study with different structures including TiO2, TiO2/NiO and TiO2/NiO:Eu(3+),Tb(3+) as the photoanodes was carried out to illustrate the photovoltaic performance of solar cells. NiO could enhance the performance of DSSCs ascrib...

Pursuing a high power conversion efficiency with no sacrifice of cost-effectiveness has been a persistent objective for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). One promising solution to this impasse is increased light harvesting. Previous efforts in light harvesting have been made on setting blocking layers or reflecting layers, or adding a light harvester, resulting in tedious procedures without r...

In the present work, dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) were fabricated by incorporating transparent electrodes of ordered free-standing TiO2 nanotube (TNT) arrays with both ends open transferred onto fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) conductive glass. The high-quality TiO2 membranes used here were obtained by a self-detaching technique, with the superiorities of facile but reliable procedures. Af...

In the current work, we report a series of bifacial dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) that provide power conversion efficiencies of more than 10% from bifacial irradiation. The device comprises an N719-sensitized TiO2 anode, a transparent nickel selenide (Ni-Se) alloy counter electrode (CE), and liquid electrolyte containing I(-)/I3(-) redox couples. Because of the high optical transparency, e...