Dye sensitized solar cells (CSSC): Perspectives, materials, functioning and characterization techniques

Abstract

Human development is related to the discoveries of new energy sources. On the other hand, these search led to several climate changes and damages to environment, which became the concern of the century. Global Warming, acid rain, ozone layer depletion and others environmental problems lead to alternative energy methods. Solar cell is one of the most promissors devices to reduce the burning of fossil fuels, due to the use of an inexhaustibility energy source. The Dye sensitized solar cells (DSSC) with low cost, good efficiency and easy fabrication, discovered by Grätzel and co-workers, has received much attention as the reason of. These devices are produced by the use of a semiconductor material, a dye with a good molar coefficient absorption, a redox mediator and a material reduction with catalic activity. The most varied electrochemical characterization methodologies have been applied to understand the operation of these systems. This paper presents a review in the field of DSSC, the materials used, the working principles, the major advances in devices fabrication which have been developed, and the most used characterization measurements.