Highly Efficient Bifacial Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells Employing Polymeric Counter Electrodes

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) are promising solar energy conversion devices with aesthetically favorable properties such as being colorful and having transparent features. They are also well-known for high and reliable performance even under ambient lighting, and these advantages distinguish DSCs for applications in window-type building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPVs) that utilize photons from both lamplight and sunlight. Therefore, investigations on bifacial DSCs have been done intensively, but further enhancement in performance under back-illumination is essential for practical window-BIPV applications. In this research, highly efficient bifacial DSCs were prepared by a combination of electropolymerized poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiphene) (PEDOT) counter electrodes (CEs) and cobalt bipyridine redox ([Co(bpy) 3 ] 3+/2+ ) electrolyte, both of which manifested superior transparency when …