Dye-sensitized solar and photoelectrochemical cells Fundamental insights and design principles

The Sun can be considered the center of life, and therefore (by extension) central to humankind. From agricultural endeavors to the burning of fossil fuels, humans have adopted a multifaceted approach in exploiting solar energy. The burning of fossil fuels and—the concomitant releasing of years of stored solar energy back into the Earth’s atmosphere—is causing detrimental consequences to the planet. Given our dependence on this energy source, it is only natural for humans to turn to the Sun once more, to see if we can directly use solar energy to sustain our modern lifestyle. Directly harvesting the energy from the Sun can be achieved by solar cells that can convert energy from light into electrical current. The field of solar cells has been subjected to many years of constant innovation, with dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) as a most promising category. The aim of these solar cells is to create high-efficiency and low-cost devices that can even be used under low lighting intensity and integrated into the interior of buildings. Besides converting solar energy into useable energy, effectively storing this energy to create a constant flow of energy from an intermittent energy source is equally important. Dye-sensitized photoelectrochemical cells (DSPECs) are devices that mimic natural photosynthesis to store solar energy into chemical energy by split-ting water into oxygen and hydrogen as the chemical energy source. In this thesis, fundamentals, and design principles of both dye-sensitized solar and photoelectrochemical cells are explored.