The document describes the components and functioning of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). It lists the typical layers of a DSSC as glass, transparent conducting oxide, TiO2 nanoparticles coated with ruthenium-based dyes, electrolyte, and a counter electrode. The TiO2 provides a large surface area for dye molecules to absorb sunlight. Examples of conducting transparent electrodes are sol-gel processed ZnO and SnO2:F. DSSCs have advantages over silicon solar cells such as lower cost, greater stability, and the ability to achieve efficiencies up to 33% theoretically, although current efficiencies are around 11%.

1. 1) Basic principle of dye sensitized solar cell
The current DSSC design involves a set of different layers of components stacked in
serial, including glass substrate, transparent conducting layer, TiO2 nanoparticles, dyes,
electrolyte, and counter electrode covered with sealing gasket.
2) Example of dye molecule that used in DSSC.
a) "triscarboxy-ruthenium terpyridine" [Ru(4,4',4"-(COOH)3-terpy)(NCS)3] – black dye
b) 1-ethyl-3 methylimidazolium tetrocyanoborate [EMIB(CN)4]
c) copper-diselenium [Cu(In,GA)Se2]
3) Function of TiO2 in DSSC
The TiO2 nanoparticle film provides a large surface area for anchoring dye molecules,
typically ruthenium-based molecules, which are used as chromopore to absorb sunlight
in the visible region.
4) Example of conducting transparent electrode
a) A sol-gel processed ZnO film
b) SnO2:F
5) 3 advantage of DSSC compared to silicon solar cell
Traditional solar cells are fabricated from semiconductor materials such as silicon.
Silicon-based solar cells generally implement semiconductor layers to produce electron
current by exploiting the photovoltaic effects that exist at semiconductor junctions. A
second type of solar cell, known as a dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC), utilizes dye to
absorb incoming light in order to produce excited electrons. DSSCs have advantages
over silicon-based solar cells including device stability, low-cost fabrication, and a higher
solar-to-electrical energy conversion. Dye-sensitized solar cells have a theoretical
maximum energy conversion efficiency of 33%; however, due to technical constraints,
the actual energy conversion efficiency of a DSSC is closer to 11%, which is less than

2. half of the crystalline silicon-based solar cells efficiency of 24.4%. Improving DSSC
efficiency is critical to widespread adoption of this technology.
http://techportal.eere.energy.gov/technology.do/techID=360