Toward Eco-Friendly Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSCs): Natural Dyes and Aqueous Electrolytes

Due to their low cost, facile fabrication, and high-power conversion efficiency (PCE), dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have attracted much attention. Ruthenium (Ru) complex dyes and organic solvent-based electrolytes are typically used in high-efficiency DSSCs. However, Ru dyes are expensive and...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Energies (Basel) 2022-01, Vol.15 (1), p.219
Main Authors: Kim, Ji-Hye, Kim, Dong-Hyuk, So, Ju-Hee, Koo, Hyung-Jun
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alternative energy sources
aqueous electrolyte
Aqueous electrolytes
Biocompatibility
Biomimetics
Carcinogens
Chlorophyll
dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs)
Dye-sensitized solar cells
Dyes
eco-friendly DSSCs
Efficiency
Electrolytes
Electrolytic cells
Energy conversion efficiency
Environmental impact
Ethanol
Fabrication
Fruits
Light
Low cost
natural dye
Organic solvents
Photovoltaic cells
Redox properties
Ruthenium
Solar cells
Solar energy
Solvents
Surface tension
Viscosity
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Due to their low cost, facile fabrication, and high-power conversion efficiency (PCE), dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have attracted much attention. Ruthenium (Ru) complex dyes and organic solvent-based electrolytes are typically used in high-efficiency DSSCs. However, Ru dyes are expensive and require a complex synthesis process. Organic solvents are toxic, environmentally hazardous, and explosive, and can cause leakage problems due to their low surface tension. This review summarizes and discusses previous works to replace them with natural dyes and water-based electrolytes to fabricate low-cost, safe, biocompatible, and environmentally friendly DSSCs. Although the performance of “eco-friendly DSSCs” remains less than 1%, continuous efforts to improve the PCE can accelerate the development of more practical devices, such as designing novel redox couples and photosensitizers, interfacial engineering of photoanodes and electrolytes, and biomimetic approaches inspired by natural systems.
ISSN:1996-1073
1996-1073
DOI:10.3390/en15010219