An Overview of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Abstract

Recent year’s polymer electrolytes (PEs) have attracted attention as a possible substituent in various kinds of electrochemical devices, including Lithium-ion batteries with fuel cells, supercapacitors, electro chromic displays, solar cells, etc. Replacement of conventional liquid electrolytes by Polymer electrolytes (PEs) increases the flexibility, compactness, and stability of those devices and leads to more facile and leak-free fabrication. Alternatives to liquid electrolytes in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC), such as polymer electrolytes or gel-type polymer electrolytes, are promising. The huge research about PEs reflects its wide range of applications i.e., from solid polymer electrolytes (SPEs) to quasi-solid state or polymer gel electrolytes (PGEs) to composite polymer electrolytes (CPEs). Several approaches have been adopted to enhance the room temperature electrical conductivity as well as to improve the mechanical stability and interfacial activity of PEs. All around world, research is being done to determine how to use different methods, such as interface engineering, to increase the efficiency of polymer based DSSCs. Using a binary mixture of iodide salts with smaller and larger cations, a method to enhance the performance of PGEs based DSSCs is presented in this brief study and demonstrated with various examples. Hence, this review provides a detailed description of the preparation of a series of biopolymer-based gel electrolytes for DSSC applications. To manufacture DSSCs by using biopolymers as gel electrolytes, the latest advancements in this field are briefly summarized in this review. The utilization of PGEs results in increased conductivity and diffusion coefficient. DSSCs fabricated using the prepared PGEs exhibit higher efficiency under different light intensities. Furthermore, stability for the long-term tests reveals the fabricated DSSCs exhibit prolonged stability.