Abstract
Human beings are attempting to take advantage of renewable natural resources by using solar cells. These devices take the sun’s radiation and convert it into electrical energy. The issue with traditional silicon-based solar cells is their manufacturing costs and environmental problems. For this reason, alternatives have been developed within the solar cell field. One of these alternatives is the dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC), also known as Grätzel solar cells. DSSCs are a type of solar cell that mimics photosynthesis. They have a photoanode, which is formed by a semiconductor film sensitized with a dye. Some of their advantages include low-cost manufacturing, eco-friendly materials use, and suitability for most environments. This review discusses four important aspects, with two related to the dye, which can be natural or synthetic. Herein, only natural dyes and their extraction methods were selected. On the other hand, this paper discusses the nanostructures used for DSSCs, the TiO2 nanostructure being the most reported; it recently reached an efficiency level of 10.3%. Finally, a review on the novelties in DSSCs technology is presented, where it is observed that the use of Catrin protein (cow brain) shows 1.45% of efficiency, which is significantly lower if compared to Ag nanoparticles doped with graphene that report 9.9% efficiency.
Highlights
Published: 29 October 2021The history of sensitized cells began with the pioneering work of Brian O’Regan and Michael Grätzel, on the promising applications of nanosized TiO2 porous film electrodes in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC); these devices convert solar energy into electricity through the photoelectric effect [1]
In some of the investigations carried out using natural dyes for DSSCs, the values obtained in terms of efficiency do not exceed the synthetic dyes; such is the case of the document [31], where the use of mangosteen as a base for the dye used is reported, which, by itself, presented an efficiency of 0.38%; to improve this value, different proportions chenodeoxycholic acid were added, and this was carried out to increase the performance of the DSSCs
Doped materials are a milestone in efficiency enhancement
Summary
The history of sensitized cells began with the pioneering work of Brian O’Regan and Michael Grätzel, on the promising applications of nanosized TiO2 porous film electrodes in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC); these devices convert solar energy into electricity through the photoelectric effect [1]. DSSCs are photonic devices that convert visible light into electricity and are based on a porous, thin film of a wide-bandgap semiconductor oxide modified by dye molecules. This type of film enhances light absorption due to its sponge-like characteristics and increased surface area. The electron is transferred to the mesoporous TiO2 conduction band, which has a large surface area; this facilitates the injection of large amounts of charge carriers This electron is transferred to the transparent conductive oxide and transported to an external circuit until it reaches the counter electrode, which transfers the electron to the electrolyte so that the latter returns the electron to the dye—that is, regenerates it—and with this, the dye can absorb another photon from the medium and start the cycle again [11]. Subcategories of flavonoid compounds [15]
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