Engineered hole-free, spacer-free dye-sensitized light harvesters for indoor photovoltaic and self-powered applications†

Abstract

We have custom-engineered dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) by eliminating spacers and holes, fabricating hole-free, spacer-free (HF-SF) DSCs with a 96% active area to total area ratio. These newly engineered HF-SF dye cells provide better scalability, lower cost, and improved aesthetics with enhanced device performance delivering more than 30% efficiency under indoor/ambient illumination. Two serially interconnected HF-SF DSCs fabricated using D35:XY1b co-sensitized organic dyes and [Cu^(I/II)(dmp)₂] electrolyte were able to autonomously power an indoor temperature and humidity monitoring unit free of batteries at realistic indoor illumination intensities below 200 lux.