High efficiency porphyrin sensitized mesoscopic solar cells

Abstract

Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSC) represents a reliable technology, ready for the market and able to compete with silicon solar cells for specific fields of application. Porphyrin dyes allow reaching high power conversion efficiency in conjunction with cobalt redox electrolytes due to larger open circuit potentials. The bigger size of the cobalt complexes compared to standard iodide/triiodide redox couple hampers its percolation through the meso-porous TiO2 network, thus impairing the regeneration process. In case of porphyrin dyes mass transport problems in the electrolyte need to be carefully handled, due to the large size of the sensitizing molecule and the bulky cobalt complexes. Herein we report the study of structural variations on porphyrin sensitizers and their influence on the DSSC performance with cobalt based redox electrolyte.