Hybrid dye sensitized solar cells

Starting with the nanocrystalline dye sensitized solar cell invented by Graetzel, research in photovoltaics experienced an increased interest by many research teams [1,2]. This paper deals with the synthesis and characterization of new phthalocyanine based chromophores for the fabrication of dye sensitized solar cells and hybrid dye sensitized solar cells. We have synthesized cromophores based on phthalocyanine with different number of pending carboxy groups and utilized them to fabricate solar cells, investigating their photovoltaic response. Based on this, our team developed a hybrid design using polymers obtained by chemical means in the laboratory. As conductive polymers, polyaniline doped with different doping agents and polythiophene were used. For the cell fabrication we have performed the deposition of TiO2 followed by the dye absorption and the polymer film formation in the case of hybrid cells. The current-voltage characteristic showed the correlation between the structure of the dye and its response. The obtained results showed relative low efficiency similarly to those presented in the literature.