Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) are recognized as one of the world's leading innovation in nanosciences and photovoltaic technology. In contrast to the conventional silicon-based solar cells the demand on purity of materials for DSSC is lower and forecasted manufacturing costs are approximately halved which make the DSSCs attractive alternative. Nowadays the conversion efficiency of DSSCs exceeds 10% which makes it competitive with other thin film solar cells. In this chapter the structure and the fundamental operation of the DSSC are presented. Afterwards the properties and requirements for each individual component used in a DSSC are given. In addition advanced hybrid DSSC systems also are presented. In overall, the emphasis of this chapter is given to the involvement of sol-gel chemistry in the preparation of the individual DSSCs components, primarily of TiO2 layers and electrolytes.