Aqueous dye-sensitized solar cell electrolytes based on the ferricyanide-ferrocyanide redox couple

Authors

Torben Daeneke, Monash University
Yu Uemura, University of Tsukuba
N W. Duffy, Monash University
Attila J. Mozer, University of WollongongFollow
Nagatoshi Koumura, University of Tsukuba
Udo Bach, Monash University
Leone Spiccia, Monash University

RIS ID

52507

Publication Details

Daeneke, T., Uemura, Y., Duffy, N. W., Mozer, A. J., Koumura, N., Bach, U. & Spiccia, L. (2012). Aqueous dye-sensitized solar cell electrolytes based on the ferricyanide-ferrocyanide redox couple. Advanced Materials, 24 (9), 1222-1225.

Abstract

The application of water as solvent in dye-sensitized solar cell (DSC) electrolytes is highly attractive due to its non-toxicity, non-flammability and excellent solvation of many potential redox mediators. However, the current consensus is that water is an undesirable contaminant in DSC electrolytes as it leads to the formation of iodate, dye desorption, low device efficiencies and device instability. While this holds true for the majority of dyes investigated previously, we demonstrate herein that a carbazole dye performs exceptionally well in DSCs constructed with aqueous electrolytes, and that efficiencies of over 4% can be reached by applying the ferricyanide–ferrocyanide redox couple.