Sensitized mesoscopic solar cells

Article By:

Park, Nam-Gyu School of Chemical Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University, Jangan-gu, Suwon, Republic of Korea.

Last reviewed:2014

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.YB140266

A sensitized mesoscopic solar cell is based on a “mesoporous” oxide film, where mesopores with diameters of 2–50 nm are formed by the packing of oxide nanoparticles. A mesoscopic solar cell is usually composed of the nanoparticle titanium dioxide (TiO₂) film on a transparent conductive oxide (TCO) substrate, the light-harvesting sensitizer that is adsorbed on the TiO₂ surface, and the redox electrolyte for a liquid cell or the hole-transporting material for a solid-state cell. The TCO substrate with the sensitizer-adsorbed TiO₂ film serves as the working electrode or negative electrode. A platinum-coated conductive substrate is used as a counter electrode in the liquid electrolyte cell, while metal thin films, such as gold or silver, are used as the counter electrode in the solid-state cell. The mesoscopic solar cell was first developed by Brian O'Regan and Michael Grätzel in 1991, and is called the Grätzel cell.

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