Resumen de Advanced Studies on Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Sonia Ruiz Raga

• The conversion of sunlight into electricity is one of the most promising energy sources because is renewable and available worldwide. Therefore, is desirable to develop low cost, stable and efficient photovoltaic devices that can compete with the expensive silicon solar panels. Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSC) are a promising photovoltaic technology based on low-cost materials and fabrication processes with power-conversion efficiencies over 12%. DSC harvest light thanks to a photoactive organic molecule, and extracts the charges through different materials. The analysis of the working principles of these complex devices is essential in order to achieve further improvements on the solar cell efficiency. The aim of this thesis is to analyze and identify the electrical interactions between the internal materials and interfaces of a DSC by means of impedance spectroscopy (IS). We provide useful interpretation of IS applied to DSC and insights on DSC development such as implementation of photonic crystals and up-scaling to modules, as a first step for a future commercialization.