Sustainable Late Transition Metal-Based Dyes for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

ABSTRACT

In recent years, there is a growing interest in the development of sustainable sensitizers for the dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) applications. The earth-abundant transition metal complexes offer a potential alternative option to the problematic ruthenium-based dyes, owing to their interesting photophysical properties and eco-friendly nature. This review accounts in detail the development of sustainable late transition metal-sensitizers in the DSSCs. Attempts are made to comprehensively describe the various strategies involved in the molecular design of the potential dye-molecules as well as the methodologies involved in the cell-fabrication. We hope that this review will serve as a promptuary to the researchers and inspire further developments in this field.

KEYWORDS:

• Dye-sensitized solar cells
• sustainable metallo-dyes
• solar energy
• power conversion efficiency

Acknowledgments

VH thanks Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amritapuri for the Ph. D. fellowship. NVK acknowledges Dr. D. C. Pavate foundation, Karnatak University, Dharwad for the visiting fellowship, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amritapuri for the Chancellor’s collaborative research fellowship and Prof. Stuart M. Clarke, University of Cambridge for his support.

Disclosure statement

There are no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could influence the work reported in this article.

CRediT author statement

VH: Literature collection, Writing original draft. NVK: Conceptualization, Literature collection, Writing original draft, Writing-review & editing.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham University [Chancellors Collaborative Research Fellowship]; Karnatak University Dharwad [D. C. Pavate Visiting Fellowship].