Significant performance improvement in dye-sensitized solar cells employing cobalt(iii/ii) tris-bipyridyl redox mediators by co-grafting alkyl phosphonic acids with a ruthenium sensitizer

Abstract

Efficiencies of up to 8.5% for dye-sensitized solar cells employing a ruthenium dye with a cobalt complex redox mediator have been achieved, by using octadecylphosphonic acid (OPA) as a coadsorbent. This success is due to improved electron injection and reduced recombination.