Mingkui Wang

Enhance the Optical Absorptivity of Nanocrystalline TiO2 Film with High Molar Extinction Coefficient Ruthenium Sensitizers for High Performance Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

We report two new heteroleptic polypyridyl ruthenium complexes, coded C101 and C102, with high molar extinction coefficients by extending the pi-conjugation of spectator ligands, with a motivation to enhance the optical absorptivity of mesoporous titania film and charge collection yield in a dye-sensitized solar cell. On the basis of this C101 sensitizer, several DSC benchmarks measured under the air mass 1.5 global sunlight have been reached. Along with an acetonitrile-based electrolyte, the C101 sensitizer has already achieved a strikingly high efficiency of 11.0-11.3%, even under a preliminary testing. More importantly, based on a low volatility 3-methoxypropionitrile electrolyte and a solvent-free ionic liquid electrolyte, cells have corresponding >9.0% and approximately 7.4% efficiencies retained over 95% of their initial performances after 1000 h full sunlight soaking at 60 degrees C. With the aid of electrical impedance measurements, we further disclose that, compared to the cell with an acetonitrile-based electrolyte, a dye-sensitized solar cell with an ionic liquid electrolyte shows a feature of much shorter effective electron diffusion lengths due to the lower electron diffusion coefficients and shorter electron lifetimes in the mesoporous titania film, explaining the photocurrent difference between these two type devices. This highlights the next necessary efforts to further improve the efficiency of cells with ionic liquid electrolytes, facilitating the large-scale production and application of flexible thin film mesoscopic solar cells.

Highly Efficient Light-Harvesting Ruthenium Sensitizer for Thin-Film Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

A high molar extinction coefficient heteroleptic ruthenium complex, incorporating an electron-rich hexylthio-terminal chain, has been synthesized and demonstrated as an efficient sensitizer for dye-sensitized solar cells. With this new sensitizer excellent power conversion efficiency is 11.5% and 4.7% obtained under an irradiation of full sunlight (air mass 1.5 global) in combination with a volatility electrolyte and solid state hole transporting material, respectively. The devices with low volatility electrolyte showed good stability under visible-light soaking at 60 degrees C during 1000 h of accelerated tests.

CoS supersedes Pt as efficient electrocatalyst for triiodide reduction in dye-sensitized solar cells.

We report an efficient nonplatinized flexible counter electrode for dye-sensitized solar cells. In combination with a solvent-free ionic liquid electrolyte, we have demonstrated a approximately 6.5% cell with an amphiphilic ruthenium polypyridyl photosensitizer showing excellent stability measured under prolonged light soaking at 60 degrees C. Compared to the Pt deposited PEN film, the CoS deposited PEN film shows higher electrocatalytic activity for the reduction of triiodide. This is expected to have an important practical consequence on the production of flexible low-cost and lightweight thin film DSC devices based on the plastic matrix.

Efficient CdSe quantum dot-sensitized solar cells prepared by an improved successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction process

In pursuit of efficient quantum dot (QD)-sensitized solar cells based on mesoporous TiO(2) photoanodes, a new procedure for preparing selenide (Se(2-)) was developed and used for depositing CdSe QDs in situ over TiO(2) mesopores by the successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) process in ethanol. The sizes and density of CdSe QDs over TiO(2) were controlled by the number of SILAR cycles applied. After some optimization of these QD-sensitized TiO(2) films in regenerative photoelectrochemical cells using a cobalt redox couple [Co(o-phen)(3)(2+/3+)], including addition of a final layer of CdTe, over 4% overall efficiencies were achieved at 100 W/m(2) with about 50% IPCE at its maximum. Light-harvesting properties and transient voltage decay/impedance measurements confirmed that CdTe-terminated CdSe QD cells gave better charge-collection efficiencies and kinetic parameters than corresponding CdSe QD cells. In a preliminary study, a CdSe(Te) QD-sensitized TiO(2) film was combined with an organic hole conductor, spiro-OMeTAD, and shown to exhibit a promising efficiency of 1.6% at 100 W/m(2) in inorganic/organic hybrid all-solid-state cells.

High-performance dye-sensitized solar cells based on solvent-free electrolytes produced from eutectic melts

Low-cost excitonic solar cells based on organic optoelectronic materials are receiving an ever-increasing amount of attention as potential alternatives to traditional inorganic photovoltaic devices. In this rapidly developing field, the dye-sensitized solar cell (DSC) has achieved so far the highest validated efficiency of 11.1% (ref. 2) and remarkable stability. However, the cells with the best performance use volatile solvents in their electrolytes, which may be prohibitive for outdoor solar panels in view of the need for robust encapsulation. Solvent-free room-temperature ionic liquids have been pursued as an attractive solution to this dilemma, and device efficiencies of over 7% were achieved by using some low-viscosity formulations containing 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium thiocyanate, selenocyanate, tricyanomethide or tetracyanoborate. Unfortunately, apart from tetracyanoborate, all of these low-viscosity melts proved to be unstable under prolonged thermal stress and light soaking. Here, we introduce the concept of using eutectic melts to produce solvent-free liquid redox electrolytes. Using a ternary melt in conjunction with a nanocrystalline titania film and the amphiphilic heteroleptic ruthenium complex Z907Na (ref. 10) as a sensitizer, we reach excellent stability and an unprecedented efficiency of 8.2% under air-mass 1.5 global illumination. Our results are of importance to realize large-scale outdoor applications of mesoscopic DSCs.

An organic redox electrolyte to rival triiodide/iodide in dye-sensitized solar cells

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) have achieved impressive conversion efficiencies for solar energy of over 11% with an electrolyte that contains triiodide/iodide as a redox couple. Although triiodide/iodide redox couples work efficiently in DSCs, they suffer from two major disadvantages: electrolytes that contain triiodide/iodide corrode electrical contacts made of silver (which reduces the options for the scale up of DSCs to module size) and triiodide partially absorbs visible light. Here, we present a new disulfide/thiolate redox couple that has negligible absorption in the visible spectral range, a very attractive feature for flexible DSCs that use transparent conductors as current collectors. Using this novel, iodide-free redox electrolyte in conjunction with a sensitized heterojunction, we achieved an unprecedented efficiency of 6.4% under standard illumination test conditions. This novel redox couple offers a viable pathway to develop efficient DSCs with attractive properties for scale up and practical applications.

Electron Transport and Recombination in Solid-State Dye Solar Cell with Spiro-OMeTAD as Hole Conductor

We show that electron transport mechanisms in TiO(2) solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells (SDSCs) with spiro-OMeTAD as hole conductor are similar to those of high-performance DSCs with liquid electrolytes and ionic liquids. Impedance spectroscopy provides the parameters for transport and recombination at different conditions of steady state in the dark. The recombination rate is much higher in the solid solar cell, this being a main limiting step to obtain high-efficiency SDSCs. Thus, the expected gain in photovoltage, due to a lower hole Fermi level, is prevented by recombination losses. Under low potentials the transport is limited by the electron transport in the TiO(2), but at high potentials spiro-OMeTAD transport resistance reduces the fill factor and hence the efficiency on high-current devices.

Hole selective NiO contact for efficient perovskite solar cells with carbon electrode.

In this study, we communicate an investigation on efficient CH3NH3PbI3-based solar cells with carbon electrode using mesoporous TiO2 and NiO layers as electron and hole selective contacts. The device possesses an appreciated power conversion efficiency of 14.9% under AM 1.5G illumination. The detailed information can be disclosed with impedance spectroscopy via tuning the interfaces between CH3NH3PbI3 and different charge selective contacts. The results clearly show charge accumulation at the interface of CH3NH3PbI3. The NiO is believed to efficiently accelerate charge extraction to the external circuit. The extracted charge could improve photovoltaic performance by shifting hole Fermi level down, achieving a high device photovoltage. A fast interfacial recombination at the interface of CH3NH3PbI3/electron selective contact layer (mesoporous TiO2), occurring in millisecond domains, is the critical issue for charge carrier recombination loss.

Recent developments in redox electrolytes for dye-sensitized solar cells

Redox electrolytes have proven to be extremely important in determining the performance of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs). The design and understanding of the redox couple, especially iodide free systems, has become a recent focus of DSC electrolyte research. In this perspective article, advances in the conception and performance of various redox shuttles including molecular hole transport materials are reviewed with respect to their structure and the charge transfer dynamics at the counter electrode. In particular the discussion will focus on the trends that enable iodide-free redox couples to be the most effective and their feasibility to be used in DSCs in combination with new and innovative sensitizers and counter electrode materials.

Electrochemically Reduced Graphene Oxide Multilayer Films as Efficient Counter Electrode for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

We report on a new counter electrode for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs), which is prepared using layer-by-layer assembly of negatively charged graphene oxide and positively charged poly (diallyldimethylammonium chloride) followed by an electrochemical reduction procedure. The DSC devises using the heteroleptic Ru complex C106TBA as sensitizer and this new counter electrode reach power conversion efficiencies of 9.5% and 7.6% in conjunction with low volatility and solvent free ionic liquid electrolytes, respectively. The new counter electrode exhibits good durability (60°C for 1000 h in a solar simulator, 100 mW cm−2) during the accelerated tests when used in combination with an ionic liquid electrolyte. This work identifies a new class of electro-catalysts with potential for low cost photovoltaic devices.