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XDSC : Excitonic Dye Solar Cells

Solar energy is the foremost power source of our planet. Driving photosynthesis on our planet for 3 billion years the energy stored in the form of fossil fuels also originates from the sun. Consumption of fossil fuels to generate energy is accompanied with CO2 emission which affects the earth's climate in a serious manner. Therefore, alternative ways of converting energy have to be found. Solar cells convert sunlight directly into electricity and are therefore an important technology for future electricity generation. In this work solar cells based on the inorganic semiconductor titanium dioxide and hole-transporting dyes are investigated. These type of solar cells are categorized as hybrid solar cells and are conceptually related to both dye-sensitized solar cells and organic solar cells. Light absorption in the bulk of the hole-transporting dye layer leads to the formation of excitons that can be harvested at the organic/inorganic interface. Two design approaches were investigated: 1) utilizing a multilayer of a hole-transporting dye and 2) utilizing a hole-transporting dye as light harvesting antenna to another dye which is bound to the titanium dioxide surface.  Using a multiple dye layer in titanium dioxide/hole transporting dye devices, leads to an improved device performance as light harvested in the consecutive dye layers can contribute to the photocurrent. In devices using both an inteface-bound dye and a hole-transporting dye, excitation energy can be transferred from the hole-transporting dye to the interface dye.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-168608
Date January 2012
CreatorsUnger, Eva
PublisherUppsala universitet, Teknisk-naturvetenskapliga vetenskapsområdet, Uppsala
Source SetsDiVA Archive at Upsalla University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeDoctoral thesis, comprehensive summary, info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis, text
Formatapplication/pdf
Rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
RelationDigital Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Science and Technology, 1651-6214 ; 899

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