Anagrafe della ricerca

In the current climate crisis scenario, the production of energy from renewable sources is one of the main challenges that scientists are facing. Because of the abundance and worldwide distribution of solar light radiation, photovoltaics is surely one of the suitable solutions to face the current and future energy demand. In this regard, dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) represent a particular type of sunlight converters, being low cost, highly transparent, with tunable colors and with the unique property of harvesting also scattered photons. Owing to these intriguing features, DSSCs started to be marketed in the recent years both in the field of architectural integration and in that of portable electronics; the market value was estimated to be 49.6 M$ in 2014 and is estimated to grow at a compound annual growth rate of over 12?% from 2015 to 2022. Since O'Regan and Grätzel reported the first DSSC with a power conversion efficiency (PCE)˜7?%, the highest published value has already reached 14.3?%, whereas the certified record is 12.?%. However, it must be taken into account that the electrolyte solution of these devices always contains organic solvents, leading to several constrains and issues (i.?e., volatility, flammability and toxicity). This results in poor long-term stability, high environmental impact and risks for final users. The development of novel sensitizers and redox couples is crucial for a completely sustainable hybrid photovoltaics and the development of 100% aqueous solar cells will greatly impact this area of research currently led by Pb-based perovskites devices. In this project, I will develop hybrid solar cells with stable efficiencies exceeding 10% under 1 sun irradiation (long-term aim) and 20% under 0.1 sun, using only water and non-rare/heavy elements for electrodes and electrolytes design (short-term aim).