Dye Sensitized Solar Cells

During the times of fossil fuel shortage, as a result of increasing crude oil prices and environmental consequences sustainable energy forms become more and more the focus of attention. Hydropower, wind power, or biomass processing are some of the sustainable energy resources. Another important source for renewable energy is solar power. Photovoltaics and solar thermal collectors are some of the most widely used energy sources. Solar cells are mainly known as electric generating devices and their working mechanism is based on photo electrochemical processes. Dye solar cells (DSCs) are one of the most popular types of solar cells. These thin film cells are also known as dye sensitized solar cells (DSSC) or Grätzel cells named after the Swiss chemist Michael Grätzel who was greatly involved in the development of new cell types. Manufacturing of DSCs is simple, mostly low cost, and incorporate environmentally friendly materials. They have good efficiency (~ 10-14 %) even under low flux of sunlight.

In our research we deal with the excited state characteristics of isolated sensitizer molecules. Our study is focused on exploring potential energy surfaces and excited state properties. We mainly explore absorption spectra and charge transfer nature of molecules known as DSSC candidates. In our previously published work in this research area, we observed two-photon absorption capabilities of these dyes and we tried to gain insight into their charge induction capabilities in dye-sensitized solar cells.