Hybrid sulfurothioate-based electrolyte improving aesthetics, performance, and stability of transparent NIR-dye-sensitized solar cells

Abstract

Enhancing performance, stability, and aesthetics is crucial for the development of transparent photovoltaics (TPV). In TPV, aesthetics are equally or even more important than performance because social acceptance requires maintaining aesthetics to a high level. In this work, we report a colorless hybrid electrolyte consisting of a thioate/iodide mixture. When integrated into wavelength-selective near-infrared-dye-sensitized solar cells (NIR-DSSCs), this electrolyte improves the power conversion efficiency (PCE) to up to 2.9% with a scattering layer and 2.1% in a transparent cell under AM1.5G conditions. It also reaches as high as 96% PCE retention over 1,800 h and confers an outstanding aesthetic level, up to 80% average visible transmittance (AVT), a color rendering index (CRI) of 96, and color purity as low as 14%, thus equaling the aesthetics of a double-glazed glass window.