Dye anchored counter electrode: novel architecture towards enhanced performance for multiple dye sensitized solar cells

Abstract

A dye anchored counter electrode (DACE) based dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) is fabricated. The multi-dyed N719 and PCH001 DSSC with carbon nanohorns (CNHs) as the counter electrode revealed a broad spectra of the incident photon to current conversion efficiency (IPCE) and an efficiency (η) of 7.14%. The device with a FTO/TiO₂ front electrode without dye and the DACE (FTO/Pt/TiO₂/N719) shows η = 1.38%. This work evidences that the transfer the photo-excited electrons in the DACE contributes in the photovoltaic conversion. DACE-DSSCs are an alternative potential architecture for multiple dye sensitized solar cells for enhanced performance.