Rational Design of Solar Cells for Efficient Solar Energy Conversion

Alagarsamy Pandikumar, Ph.D., is a Scientist at the Functional Materials Division, CSIR-Central Electrochemical Research Institute, and leads the Solar Energy Materials Research Group. Ramasamy Ramaraj, Ph.D., is a CSIR-Emeritus Scientist in the School of Chemistry, at Madurai Kamaraj University, where he continues his research work on photoelectrochemistry.

• Biographies xiiiList of Contributors xvPreface xix1 Metal Nanoparticle Decorated ZnO Nanostructure Based Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells 1Gregory Thien Soon How, Kandasamy Jothivenkatachalam, Alagarsamy Pandikumar, and Nay Ming Huang1.1 Introduction 11.2 Metal Dressed ZnO Nanostructures as Photoanodes 31.3 Conclusions and Outlook 112 Cosensitization Strategies for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells 15Gachumale Saritha, Sambandam Anandan, and Muthupandian Ashokkumar2.1 Introduction 152.2 Cosensitization 182.3 Conclusions 513 Natural Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells – Strategies and Measures 61N. Prabavathy, R. Balasundaraprabhu, and Dhayalan Velauthapillai3.1 Introduction 613.2 Components of Dye-sensitized Solar Cell 633.3 Fabrication of Natural DSSCs 653.4 Efficiency and Stability Enhancement in Natural Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells 683.5 Other Strategies and Measures taken in DSSCs Using Natural Dyes 793.6 Conclusions 824 Advantages of Polymer Electrolytes for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells 85L.P. Teo and A.K. Arof4.1 Why Solar Cells? 854.2 Structure and Working Principle of DSSCs with Gel Polymer Electrolytes (GPEs) 864.3 Gel Polymer Electrolytes (GPEs) 874.4 Summary and Outlook 1105 Advantages of Polymer Electrolytes Towards Dye-sensitized Solar Cells 121Nagaraj Pavithra, Giovanni Landi, Andrea Sorrentino, and Sambandam Anandan5.1 Introduction 1215.2 Polymer Electrolytes 1275.3 Dye- sensitized Solar Cells 1305.4 Quantum Dot Sensitized Solar Cells (QDSSC) 1505.5 Perovskite- Sensitized Solar Cells (PSSC) 1525.6 Conclusion 1536 Rational Screening Strategies for Counter Electrode Nanocomposite Materials for Efficient Solar Energy Conversion 169Prabhakarn Arunachalam6.1 Introduction 1696.2 Principles of Next Generation Solar Cells 1716.3 Platinum-free Counterelectrode Materials 1756.4 Summary and Outlook 1857 Design and Fabrication of Carbon-based Nanostructured Counter Electrode Materials for Dye-sensitized Solar Cells 193Jayaraman Theerthagiri, Raja Arumugam Senthil, and Jagannathan Madhavan7.1 Photovoltaic Solar Cells – An Overview 1937.2 Dye- sensitized Solar Cells 1957.3 Carbon- based Nanostructured CE Materials for DSSCs 2017.4 Conclusions 2168 Highly Stable Inverted Organic Solar Cells Based on Novel Interfacial Layers 221Fang Jeng Lim and Ananthanarayanan Krishnamoorthy8.1 Introduction 2218.2 Research Areas in Organic Solar Cells 2228.3 An Overview of Inverted Organic Solar Cells 2248.4 Issues in Inverted Organic Solar Cells and Respective Solutions 2328.5 Overcoming the Wettability Issue and Light-soaking Issue in Inverted Organic Solar Cells 2358.6 Conclusions and Outlook 2459 Fabrication of Metal Top Electrode via Solution-based Printing Technique for Efficient Inverted Organic Solar Cells 255Navaneethan Duraisamy, Kavitha Kandiah, Kyung-Hyun Choi, Dhanaraj Gopi, Ramesh Rajendran, Pazhanivel Thangavelu, and Maadeswaran Palanisamy9.1 Introduction 2559.2 Organic Photovoltaic Cells 2579.3 Working Principle 2589.4 Device Architecture 2609.5 Fabrication Process 2639.6 Fabrication of Inverted Organic Solar Cells 2679.7 Device Morphology 2729.8 Device Performance 2739.9 Conclusion 27710 Polymer Solar Cells – An Energy Technology for the Future 283Alagar Ramar and Fu-Ming Wang10.1 Introduction 28310.2 Materials Developments for Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells 28410.3 Materials Developments for Molecular Heterojunction Solar Cells 29110.4 Developments in Device Structures 29310.5 Conclusions 30011 Rational Strategies for Large-area Perovskite Solar Cells: Laboratory Scale to Industrial Technology 307Arunachalam Arulraj and Mohan Ramesh11.1 Introduction 30711.2 Perovskite 30811.3 Perovskite Solar Cells 30911.4 Device Processing 31311.5 Enhancing the Stability of Devices 31611.6 Summary 32912 Hot Electrons Role in Biomolecule-based Quantum Dot Hybrid Solar Cells 339T. Pazhanivel, G. Bharathi, D. Nataraj, R. Ramesh, and D. Navaneethan12.1 Introduction 33912.2 Classifications of Solar Cells 34112.3 Main Losses in Solar Cells 34412.4 Hot Electron Concept in Materials 34612.5 Methodology 34712.6 Material Synthesis 35012.7 Identification of Hot Electrons 35112.8 Quantum Dot Sensitized Solar Cells 36012.9 Conclusion 363References 363Index 369