ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews some of the earlier work that laid the foundations of the dye-sensitized solar cells, and this is followed by a description of the current state of the art in the design of the dye-sensitized solar cell. It focuses on solar cells, systems designed for the direct conversion of sunlight to electricity. The chapter discusses some of the reasons for the poor performance of photogalvanic cells, since these factors do play an important role in the dye-sensitized photoelectrochemical cells. It also discusses some of the key problems to be addressed when one attempts to utilize photoredox reactions for light energy conversion, particularly direct conversion to electricity. The cell is based on the concept of sensitization of monolayers of dyes adsorbed onto nanocrystalline semiconductor films. Chemists have been interested in photoelectrochemical cells based on light-induced electron transfer reactions. Overall the photogalvanic cell system clearly showed the need to look for efficient ways of processing photoredox reactions.
