Dye-sensitized Solar Cells
By: Zachary Ragan, Tiernan Mcmahon, Jonathan Gallardo, Joe Delon-Maldonado, Bernard Hendrianto, Anneke Moeller, and Lorenzo Ramirez
Department: Chemistry
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Jingjing Qiu
Artificial photosynthesis is envisioned as a promising strategy to convert sunlight, a practically unlimited and sustainable source of energy, into chemical fuels. Natural photosynthesis involves a highly complex sequence of chemical events. Dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), which involve a number of chemical components, have a reported efficiency of η = 11.9%, which is still far short of silicon solar cell performance (η = 25%). However, DSSCs can be photophysically and electrochemically tuned via chemical design and synthesis to optimize device performance.