Highly efficient photocathodes for dye-sensitized tandem solar cells based on nanocrystalline delafossite materials

PN-II-RU-TE-2014-4-1142 (45/01.10.2015)

01.10.2015-30.09.2017

ABSTRACT

The alternatives to conventional silicon-based solar cells, dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) attract great research interests because of low manufacturing cost and environmentally friendly character. Recently, Grätzel and coworkers have achieved a world record efficiency of 12.3% based on porphyrin dye sensitized TiO2 n-type DSSC.
However, the commercialization of DSSCs is still being postponed by their relatively lower efficiency. To further improve the energy conversion efficiency of DSSC up to 15% is of critical importance for the scale-up industrial application of this cheap and environmental friendly photovoltaic technology. Recently, the idea of tandem-DSSCs, with a theoretical photon to energy conversion efficiency (PCE) over 40%, has been raised.
TANDEL CELL project is aimed to obtain highly efficient photocathodes for dye-sensitized tandem solar cells based on nanocrystalline delafossite materials and the establishment of young independent research team in highly efficient dye-sensitized solar cells domain.