Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2010, 11, 1103-1113; doi:10.

3390/ijms11031103
OPEN ACCESS

International Journal of
Molecular Sciences
ISSN 1422-0067
www.mdpi.com/journal/ijms
Review

Dye Sensitized Solar Cells

Di Wei

NOKIA Research Centre c/o University of Cambridge, Broers Building, 19 JJ Thompson Avenue,
CB3 0FA, Cambridge, UK; E-Mail: di.wei@nokia.com

Received: 2 February 2010; in revised form: 2 March 2010 / Accepted: 4 March 2010 /
Published: 16 March 2010

Abstract: Dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) is the only solar cell that can offer both the
flexibility and transparency. Its efficiency is comparable to amorphous silicon solar cells
but with a much lower cost. This review not only covers the fundamentals of DSSC but
also the related cutting-edge research and its development for industrial applications. Most
recent research topics on DSSC, for example, applications of nanostructured TiO2, ZnO
electrodes, ionic liquid electrolytes, carbon nanotubes, graphene and solid state DSSC have
all been included and discussed.

Keywords: photoelectrochemistry; dye sensitized solar cells (DSSC)

1. Introduction

Photoelectrochemical solar cell is generally composed of a photoactive semiconductor working

electrode and counter electrode made of either metal (e.g., Pt) or semiconductors. Both electrodes are
immersed in the electrolyte containing suitable redox couples. If the semiconductor-electrolyte
interface (SEI) is illuminated with a light having energy greater than the bandgap of the semiconductor,
photogenerated electrons/holes are separated. The photogenerated minority carriers arrive at the
interface of the semiconductor-electrolyte. Photogenerated majority carriers accumulate at the
backside of the semiconductor. With the help of a charge-collecting substrate, photogenerated majority
carriers are transported via a load to the counter electrode where these carriers electrochemically react
with the redox electrolyte. A pioneering photoelectrochemical experiment was realized by obtaining
photocurrent between two platinum electrodes immersed in the electrolyte containing metal halide
salts [1]. It was later found that the photosensitivity can be extended to longer wavelengths by adding a
dye to silver halide emulsions [2]. The interest in photoelectrochemistry of semiconductors led to the
discovery of wet-type photoelectrochemical solar cells [3–5]. Grätzel has then extended the concept to
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2010, 11 1104

the dye sensitized solar cells (DSSC) by adsorption of dye molecules on the nanocrystalline
TiO2 electrodes.

2. Dye Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSCs)

DSSCs differ from conventional semiconductor devices in that they separate the function of light
absorption from charge carrier transport. Dye sensitizer absorbs the incident sunlight and exploits the
light energy to induce vectorial electron transfer reaction. Thus DSSCs have the following advantages
comparing with the Si based photovoltaics. (1) It is not sensitive to the defects in semiconductors such
as defects in Si. (2) The SEI is easy to form and it is cost effective for production. (3) It is possible to
realize the direct energy transfer from photons to chemical energy. The earlier photoelectrochemical
studies of dye sensitization of semiconductors focused on flat electrodes, but these systems were
facing an intrinsic problem [6]. Only the first monolayer of adsorbed dye results in effective electron
injection into the semiconductor, but such light-harvesting from a single dye monolayer is extremely
small. By application of nanoporous TiO2, the effective surface area can be enhanced 1000-fold. An
intriguing feature in the nanocrystalline TiO2 film is that the charge transport of the photo-generated
electrons passing through all the particles and grain boundaries is highly efficient [7]. Solar cell based
on a dye sensitized porous nanocrystalline TiO2 photoanode with attractive performance was first
reported by Grätzel et al. [8,9]. Interest in nanoporous semiconductor matrices permeated by an
electrolyte solution containing dye and redox couples has been stimulated by their reports. The power
conversion efficiency of the DSSC has been currently improved to 11.5% [10] since the first DSSC
was reported with efficiency of 7.1% [9], comparable with the amorphous Si cells [11]. Large-size
DSSC has been prepared on silver grid embedded fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) glass substrate by
screen printing method [12]. Under the standard test condition, energy conversion efficiency of active
area was achieved to 5.52% in 5 cm × 5 cm device, which is comparable to 6.16% of small-size cell
prepared at similar condition. G24 Innovation Ltd., based on the technology invented by Grätzel, uses
a low-cost, roll-to-roll process to make its flexible DSSC modules, which produce 0.5 watts of power
under direct sunlight. Miyasaka et al. developed a 2.1 m × 0.8 m DSSC module by connecting eight
pieces of 10 cm2 panels with six embedded cells. The module conversion efficiency is expected to be
approximately 3% and was displayed at the 1st International Photovoltaic Power Generation
Expo in 2008.
In DSSC, the initial photoexcitation occurs in the light absorbing dye as shown in Scheme 1.
Nanoporous semiconductors such as TiO2 not only act as support for dye sensitizer but also function as
electron acceptor and electronic conductor. Subsequent injection of electrons from the photo-excited
dye into the conduction band of semiconductors results in the flow of current travelling across the
nanocrystalline TiO2 film to the charge collecting electrode and then to the external circuit. Sustained
conversion of light energy is facilitated by regeneration of the reduced dye sensitizer either via a
reversible redox couple (O/R), which is usually I3-/I- (Scheme 1A) or via the electron donation from a
p-type semiconductor (Scheme 1B).
Scheme 1A shows the mechanism of a traditional wet-type DSSC containing redox couples in
electrolyte. The photoanode, made of a nanoporous dye-sensitized n-type semiconductor, receives
electrons from the photo-excited dye sensitizer which is thereby oxidized to S+. The neutral dye
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2010, 11 1105

sensitizer (S) can be regenerated by the oxidation reaction (RO) of the redox species dissolved in the
electrolyte. The mediator R will then be regenerated by reduction at the cathode (OR) by the
electrons circulated through the external circuit.

Scheme 1. Operation mechanism of the dye sensitized electrochemical solar cell (DSSC).
S: Dye sensitizer, S*: Electronically excited dye sensitizer, S+: oxidized dye sensitizer O/R:
redox couple (e,g, I3-/I-). CB: Conduction band for semiconductors, VB: valence band for
semiconductors. (A) Wet-type DSSC with redox couple in the liquid electrolyte. (B) Solid
state DSSC with a p-type semiconductor to replace the electrolyte containing the redox
couple.
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2010, 11 1106

The need for DSSC to absorb far more of the incident light was the driving force for the
development of mesoscopic semiconductor materials with an enormous internal surface area. The
major breakthrough in DSSC was the use of a high surface area nanoporous TiO2 layer. A single
monolayer of the dye on the semiconductor surface was sufficient to absorb essentially all the incident
light in a reasonable thickness (several um) of the semiconductor film. TiO2 became the semiconductor
of choice with advantage properties of cheap, abundant, and non-toxic [14]. The choice of dye is also
an important parameter. The first organic-dye photosensitization was reported in 1887 [13]. In
traditional DSSC, the standard dye was tris(2,2’-bipyridyl-4,4’-carboxylate)ruthium (II) (N3 dye). The
function of the carboxylate group in the dye is to attach the semiconductor oxide substrate by
chemisorption [14]. The dye must carry attachment groups such as carboxylate or phosphonate to
firmly graft itself to the TiO2 surface. The attachment group of the dye ensures that it spontaneously
assembles as a molecular layer upon exposing the oxide film to a dye solution. It will make a high
probability that, once a photon is absorbed, the excited state of the dye molecule will relax by electron
injection to the semiconductor conduction band. The photovoltaic performance of N3 dye has been
irreplaceable by other dye complexes since 1993 [15]. A credible challenger was identified with
tri(cyanato-2,2’,2’’-terpyridyl-4,4’,4’’-tricarboxylate) Ru (II) (black dye) [8], whose response extends
100 nm further into the IR than that of the N3 dye [16]. It is not until recently that a high molar
extinction coefficient heteroleptic ruthium complex has been synthesized and demonstrated as more
efficient sensitizer for DSSCs [10].
Because of the encapsulation problem posed by the use of liquid in the conventional wet-type
DSSC, much work is being done to make an all solid state DSSC [17,18]. The use of solvent free
electrolytes in the DSSC is supposed to offer very stable performance for the device. To construct a
full solid-state DSSC, a solid p-type conductor should be chosen to replace the liquid electrolyte. The
redox levels of the dye and p-type materials have to be adapted carefully as Scheme 1B shows. It
results in an electron in the conduction band of n-type semiconductors (e.g., TiO2) and a hole localized
on the p-type conductor. Hole transporting amorphous materials have been used in nanocrystalline
TiO2 based DSSC to transport hole carriers from the dye cation radical to the counter electrode instead
of using the I3-/I- redox species [17,19]. Early work focused on the replacement of I3-/I- liquid
electrolyte with CuI. CuI as a p-type conductor, can be prepared by precipitation from an acetonitrile
solution at room temperature and it is also a solid state ionic conductor. Cells made this way gave solar
efficiencies of several percent, but their stability is relatively poor due to the liability of CuI to air and
light [18]. Besides CuI, CuSCN has also been tried [20,21]. Organic hole transporting materials will
offer flexibility and easier processing. Bach et al. used a hole conducting amorphous organic solid
deposited by spin coating [17]. However, deposition in nanoporous materials cannot be easily achieved
by traditional methods such as evaporation or spin coating. Electrochemical deposition of organic
semiconductors on high surface area electrodes for solar cells has also been described [22]. A thin
layer of organic semiconductors can be electrochemically deposited on a nanoporous
TiO2 electrode.
One of the first solid state dye sensitized heterojunctions between TiO2 and conducting polymer
was reported by Murakoshi and coworkers [23]. The prototype of this kind of solid state DSSC is
shown in Figure 1.
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2010, 11 1107

Conducting polymer such as pyrrole was electrochemically polymerized on porous nanocrystalline

TiO2 electrode, which was sensitized by N3 dye. Polypyrrole successfully worked as a hole transport
layer connecting dye molecules anchored on TiO2 to the counter electrode. Conducting polyaniline has
also been used in solid state solar cells sensitized with methylene blue [24]. This solid state DSSC was
fabricated using conducting polyaniline coated electrodes sandwiched with a solid polymer electrolyte,
poly(vinyl alcohol) with phosphoric acid. It exhibits good photoresponse to visible light. The presence
of illumination enhances the electrochemical reaction (doping of polyaniline by migration of anions).
The observed I-V characteristics are the superposition of the Ohmic charge transport and the
electrochemical reaction. Recently, a low bandgap polymer consisting of alternating thiophene and
benzothiadiazole derivatives was used in the bulk heterjunction DSSC. This solid state DSSC using
conducting polymer exhibited a power conversion efficiency of 3.1% [25]. To date, the highest power
conversion efficiency value with organic hole-transport materials in DSSC is over 5%, reported by
Snaith et al. [26].

Figure 1. The prototype solid state DSSC.

Construction of quasi-solid-state DSSC has also been explored. Quasi-solid-state DSSCs can be
made based on the polymer grafted nanoparticle composite electrolyte [27], cyanoacrylate electrolyte
matrix [28], and a novel efficient absorbent for liquid electrolyte consisting poly(acrylic acid)-
poly(ethylene glycol) hybrid [29]. The polymer gels in above cases function as ionic conductors.
Room temperature ionic liquids are also known as good ionic conductors [30,31]. DSSCs using
imidazolium type ionic liquid crystal systems as effective electrolytes were reported [32]. Solid state
DSSCs based on ionic liquids were reported to enhance the conversion efficiency of DSSCs [33]. Ionic
liquid oligomers, which were prepared by incorporating imidazole ionic liquid with polyethylene oxide
oligomers have also been tried as electrolyte for DSSC [34]. It shows that the increase of the
polyethylene oxide molecular weight in the ionic liquid oligomers results in faster dye regeneration
and lower charge transfer resistance of I3- reduction leading to the improvement of DSSC performance.
However, the main limiting factors in the DSSC based on ionic liquids comparing with the
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2010, 11 1108

conventional wet-type DSSC are the higher recombination and lower injection of charge. At low
temperatures, the higher diffusion resistance in the ionic liquid may also be the main limiting factor
through its effect to the fill factor [35]. The non-volatile character of ionic liquids also offers the easy
packaging for printable DSSCs. Plastic and solid state DSSCs incorporating single walled carbon
nanotubes (SWNTs) and imidazorium iodide derivative have been fabricated [36]. The introduction of
carbon nanotubes will improve the solar cell performance through reduction of the series resistance.
TiO2 coated carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were recently used in DSSCs. Compared with a conventional
TiO2 cell, the TiO2-CNT (0.1 wt%) cell gives an increase to short circuit current density (JSC), which
results in ~50% increase in conversion efficiency from 3.32% to 4.97% [37]. It is supposed that the
enhancement of JSC is due to improvement in interconnectivity between the TiO2 particles and the
TiO2-CNTs in the porous TiO2 film. When employing SWNTs as conducting scaffolds in a TiO2 based
DSSC, the photoconversion efficiency can be boosted by a factor of 2 [38]. In absence of SWNT
network, a maximum internal photon-current efficiency (IPCE) of 7.36% (350 nm) at 0 V (vs. SCE)
was observed. The IPCE was enhanced significantly to 16% when the SWNT scaffolds support the
TiO2 pariticles. TiO2 nanoparticles were dispersed on SWNT films to improve photoinduced charge
separation and transport of carriers to the collecting electrode surface. Another type of carbon
nanomaterial, graphene, was also introduced to the study of DSSC recently. Transparent, conductive,
and ultrathin graphene films, as an alternative to the ubiquitously employed metal oxides window
electrodes are used for solid-state DSSCs [39].These graphene films are fabricated from exfoliated
graphite oxide, followed by thermal reduction. The obtained films exhibit a high conductivity of
550 S/cm and a transparency of more than 70% over 1,000−3,000 nm. Furthermore, they show high
chemical and thermal stabilities as well as an ultrasmooth surface with tunable wettability.
A strong increase in energy conversion efficiency could also be observed when tertiary
butylpyridine was introduced into the matrix of the organic hole conductor [40] with similar effects for
classic DSSC with electrolyte/TiO2 junctions [15]. The increase in Voc may be due to either a charging
of surface states or a shift of the conduction band edge [41]. Lithium ion interactions into TiO2-B
nanowires [42], nanocrystalline rutile TiO2 particles [43] and a class of perovskite based lithium ion
conductors [44] have been reported. Photovoltages of nanoporous TiO2 based DSSC was found to be
improved by up 200 mV with a negligible decrease in photocurrent by treating TiO2 electrodes with
intercalation of Li+ [45]. The enhancement of photovoltage is explained in terms of the formation of a
dipole layer due to adsorption of Li+ on the TiO2 surface generated by the reaction of intercalated Li
atoms with moisture in air. Addition of lithium salt Li[(CF3SO2)2N] to the spin coating solution of the
hole conductor also resulted in a strong performance increase in the final device. The underlying
mechanism remained unidentified although charge screening due to partial ionic mobility inside the
hole conductor matrix and/or the effect of the present lithium ions on the flat band potential of TiO2
were postulated as possible mechanisms [46].
Other n-type semiconducting electrodes besides TiO2 have been probed for DSSC. The best studied
of the alternative materials to TiO2 is ZnO [47–49]. ZnO has similar band gap (3.2 eV) and band edge
position to TiO2 [50] with similar or smaller crystallite sizes than for typical TiO2. The fabrication of
DSSC with a branched structure of ZnO nanowires was recently reported [51]. ZnO nanoparticles and
nanowires have been used enabling lower temperature manufabricated DSSC electrodes [52,53].
Unlike TiO2, ZnO does not need high-temperature annealing process and extends the electrodes to
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2010, 11 1109

flexible polymer substrates. The striking optical properties of nanoporous silicon obtained by
photoanodic etching [54] extended the materials research scope of photoelectrochemistry to other
porous crystalline semiconductors [55]. At present, there is a considerable effort being devoted to
DSSC with nanoporous photoanodes [9,56]. Nanoporous semiconductor electrodes were further
investigated within the scope of quantum dots. Photoelectrochemical activity has been shown when the
quantum dots such as CdS and PbS are attached to a metal electrode in a sub-monolayer array [57–61].
An ordered or disordered monolayer/sub-monolayer of nanometer-sized semiconductor particles (e.g.,
PbS quantum dots) can be attached to a conducting substrate either by directly or via a self-assembled
organic monolayer [62,63]. Photoelectrochemical study of organic-inorganic hybrid thin films via
electrostatic layer by layer assembly was reported [64]. This provides a new way to produce
nanoporous semiconductor electrodes for DSSCs.

3. Conclusions

Solid state and printable DSSCs will have a promising future for the development of efficient and
flexible optoelectronics. Even though DSSCs have lower light to electricity conversion efficiency than
the best thin film Si solar cells, they are considerably cheaper to be made and feasible to be printed on
flexible substrate. Amorphous Si thin-film cells degrade in sunlight over time, and their efficiencies
also go down if the sunlight hits them at some special incident angle. DSSCs are longer lasting and
work at wide angles. In addition, DSSCs work more efficiently in indoor light, because the dye
absorbs diffuse sunlight as well as fluorescent lighting. With improvements on nonvolatile electrolytes,
organic dyes and nanoporous semiconducting electrode, cheaper but more robust DSSCs will
definitely take their share in the solar cell markets competing with the traditional thin film
solar technologies.

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