Review on TiO2 nanostructured photoanode and novel dyes for dye-sensitized solar cells application

Abstract

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) are an efficient and abundant source of available energy. As the photoanode material for DSSCs, TiO₂ has long been proven to be an ideal semiconductor material for such cells due to its excellent photovoltaic properties. However, DSSCs have not been put into mass production because of the difficulty in meeting the requirement of constant output in terms of photoelectric conversion efficiency. To address such problems, scholars have tried to solve them by reducing the bandgap of photoanode materials, reducing electron–hole complexes, and finding new dyes with suitable energy levels. Therefore, this paper focuses on reviewing the development and application of TiO₂-based photoanodes and novel dyes by scholars in the last decade from both theoretical and experimental aspects. On the theoretical side, the performance prediction of TiO₂-based photoanodes doped with different impurity elements and the calculation of the molecular structure of novel dyes are summarized by first-principles calculation methods. On the experimental side, the positive improvements of TiO₂-based DSSCs doped with metals, non-metals, and oxides are summarized, and the application of novel dyes in TiO₂-based DSSCs is also presented. In addition, different improvement methods are objectively evaluated and summarized.