Abstracts Book - IMRC 2018

• SC4-O002 Invited Talk
NOVEL ORGANIC DYES AND MESOPOROUS METAL OXIDE
NANOSTRUCTURES FOR HIGH-EFFICIENCY DYE SOLAR CELLS
AND SEMI-TRANSPARENT SOLAR MODULES
Cyril Aumaitre 1 , Damien Joly 1 , Maxime Godfroy 1 , Yann Kervella 1 , Frédéric Oswald 2 , Emilio
Palomares 3 , Renaud Demadrille 1
1
CEA, INAC, France. 2 SME, Solaronix, Switzerland. 3 ICIQ, ICIQ, Spain.
Among photovoltaic technologies, dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) show some
interesting features for everyday life applications and they already demonstrate
a development at the industrial level. These solar cells can combine a high
efficiency with good stability, and they can be semi-transparent and colourful,
which are strong advantages for building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV). [1]
However, efforts are still needed to improve their efficiency and lifetime in order
to further expand their competitiveness and to favour the spreading of this
technology. In that context, the design of new organic dyes, that exhibit finely
tuned optoelectronic properties, is still a lane to explore.
In this communication, we will present our latest developments of organic
sensitizers covering the spectral domain ranging the visible to the near-infrared.
The synthetic strategies to access to these compounds and their optoelectronic
properties will be discussed. We will show that, after optimization, highly
efficient devices, with current densities up to 20 mA/cm² and power conversion
efficiencies above 10%, can be fabricated using these dyes in combination with
an iodine-based liquid electrolyte. [2] Photophysical studies combined to
theoretical calculations allowed us to fully unravel the interfacial processes at
the origin of the solar cell performances. The replacement of liquid electrolytes
by ionic liquid electrolytes allowed us to obtain efficient devices with a stability
greater than 7000 hours under harsh ageing conditions. [3]
In the second part of this talk, we will demonstrate that further improvements
of the photovoltaic parameters can be obtained combining these dyes with
tailor-made mesoporous photoelectrodes comprising innovative metal oxide
nanostructures (3D inverse opal). [4] Some results obtained in semi-transparent
solar modules with active area of 1400 cm² will also be presented. [1]