Abstract
The energy crisis is a global problem that drives investment on renewable energy sources worldwide. Utilization of solar energy has become an effective strategy for sustainable energy generation, as it has the potential to fill the energy gap created due to the depletion of fossil fuel. On the ever-extending ladder of solar harvesting technologies, third generation dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) have the advantages of better cost effectiveness and environmental footprint when compared to the first-generation silicon solar cells and second-generation thin film photovoltaics. The ultimate goal of constructing high-efficiency multi-junction devices has set the target of improving single junction components of DSCs (n- and p-type), separately. The pace of development of single junction p-DSCs has been much slower than that of n-DSCs. Discovery of suitable materials and techniques have lifted the performance of n-DSCs to more than 14% since it was first reported in 1991. On the other hand, p-DSCs have a maximum efficiency of 2.51%. It is important to bridge the gap between the efficiencies of these single junction configurations, in order to adopt the concept of multi-junction/tandem-DSCs that have the potential to reach higher efficiencies by harvesting a larger fraction of the solar spectrum. This chapter focuses on reviewing literature on development of p-DSCs. First, as an introduction, the structure, function and kinetics of p-DSCs are described. Next, the two main factors that affect the overall performance of a p-DSC; light harvesting capacity, and energy loss within the device, are comprehensively discussed.
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Authors would like to express their gratitude to Mr. Dushan Wijewardena for the extended support.
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Peiris, S., Ranatunga, R.J.K.U., Perera, I.R. (2020). p-Type Dye Sensitized Solar Cells: An Overview of Factors Limiting Efficiency. In: Tyagi, H., Chakraborty, P., Powar, S., Agarwal, A. (eds) Solar Energy. Energy, Environment, and Sustainability. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-0675-8_16
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