TY - JOUR
T1 - Toward eco-friendly dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs)
T2 - Natural dyes and aqueous electrolytes
AU - Kim, Ji Hye
AU - Kim, Dong Hyuk
AU - So, Ju Hee
AU - Koo, Hyung Jun
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2022/1/1
Y1 - 2022/1/1
N2 - Due to their low cost, facile fabrication, and high-power conversion efficiency (PCE), dyesensitized 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.
AB - Due to their low cost, facile fabrication, and high-power conversion efficiency (PCE), dyesensitized 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.
KW - Aqueous electrolyte
KW - Dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs)
KW - Eco-friendly DSSCs
KW - Natural dye
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85122036346&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/en15010219
DO - 10.3390/en15010219
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:85122036346
SN - 1996-1073
VL - 15
JO - Energies
JF - Energies
IS - 1
M1 - 219
ER -