ABSTRACT
Natural dye-sensitised solar cells (DSSCs) are a potential alternative to the traditional photovoltaic devices. It has gained considerable attention in the field of solar energy due to their simple fabrication, environmental friendly materials endowed with good efficiencies and low production cost. DSSCs consist of nanoporous wide band gap semiconducting oxide layer, dye sensitiser which plays important role in harvesting sunlight and transforming solar energy into electric energy, an electrolyte and a counter electrode which may be graphite coated or platinum coated. This chapter discusses the preparation of Titanium dioxide, Titanium dioxide-Zinc oxide, Titanium dioxide-Copper oxide and polymer gel electrolyte. It analyses the effects of these oxide layers on the performance of DSSCs assembled with a gel polymer electrolyte. The liquid electrolyte was replaced by quasi-solid gel polymer electrolytes using poly methyl methacrylate and polyethylene glycol which are incorporated into the liquid iodine/iodide electrolyte matrix.
