Team of Researchers makes important discovery for next Generation Solar Cells

Scientists at Monash University have, in cooperation with colleagues from the Universities of Wollogong, Australia and Ulm, created tandem cells from dye-sensitized solar cells, which have a three times higher efficiency in energy conversion than conventional tandem cells of this sort. According to Bach, the key to this innovation lay in the discovery of a new, more efficient colorant that makes the operation of inverse, dye-sensitized solar cells significantly more efficient. This breakthrough could have the power to turn the cells into a good and competitive alternative to conventional silicon cells.

The tandem approach – stacking several solar cells on top of each other – has been successfully applied in order to maximize the energy yield. However, there have been obstacles when working with dye-sensitized solar cells, for there has yet not been a process to create an inverse system in order for the dye molecules – when affected by light - to transfer positive charges efficiently over to a semiconductor. In their project, the scientists stacked two sorts of dye-sensitized solar cells – one of them inverse, the other one standardized. By doing so, they were able to create a tandem cell whose efficiency was higher than that of its single components. “By finding a way to make inverse dye-sensitized solar cells work very efficiently, we opened the door to producing dye-sensitized tandem cells as a profitable alternative”, explains Bach the significance of his work.

„Even though the new tandem technology is still coming of age, an important first step towards the development of the next generation of solar cells that are cost- and energy-efficiently produced, has been taken

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