Shyama Prasad Mohanty

Bio: Shyama Prasad Mohanty is an academic researcher from Central Institute of Plastics Engineering and Technology. The author has contributed to research in topics: Dye-sensitized solar cell & Electrolyte. The author has an hindex of 5, co-authored 12 publications receiving 168 citations. Previous affiliations of Shyama Prasad Mohanty include Indian Institute of Technology Bombay.

Dye Sensitized Solar Cells: A Review

Abstract: The development of dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), which have derived inspiration from photosynthesis, has opened up exciting new possibilities and paradigms for producing solar photovoltaics possibly at lower cost. The dye-sensitized solar cells with moderate power conversion (∼10%) efficiencies can be manufactured under regular lab conditions without needing clean rooms or very specialized facilities. The entire processing need not involve even a single vapour deposition step. The DSSCs can be considered to be electrochemical devices consisting of (a) a photoanode which has a thick film of a wide band gap oxide semiconductor (like TiO2), typically coated on a transparent conductive oxide (TCO) glass substrate, with TiO2 being sensitized with adsorbed dyes that absorb visible light, (b) an electrolyte that establishes the internal electrical continuity between anode and counter electrode and mainly plays the role of regenerating the dye such that the photoexcitation, electron injection and current fl...

A simple route to making counter electrode for dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) using sucrose as carbon precursor.

Abstract: Dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have attracted much attention in recent years due to low cost fabrication as compared to silicon-based and thin film solar cells. Though, platinum is an excellent catalytic material for use in preparation of counter electrodes (CEs) for DSSCs it is expensive. Alternatives to replacement of platinum (Pt) that have been examined are carbon materials, conductive polymers and hybrids. In this work, counter electrode for DSSCs was fabricated using carbon material obtained from graphitization of sucrose at high temperature. A slurry of the carbon produced from sucrose graphitization was made with polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) as a surfactant and a coating was obtained by doctor blading the slurry over the FTO glass substrate. The current density (Jsc) and open circuit voltage (V(OC)) of fabricated cell (area 0.25 cm(2)) was 10.28 mAc m(-2) and 0.76 V respectively. The efficiency of the cell was 4.33% which was just slightly lower than that obtained for similar cells using platinum based counter electrode.

Effect of aging conditions on the performance of dip coated platinum counter electrode based dye sensitized solar cells

Abstract: Platinum is the most widely accepted excellent catalytic material for counter electrodes in dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The problems associated with platinum are high cost and low corrosion resistance against the iodide/triiodide redox couple. Use of platinum nanoparticles for counter electrodes resolves the cost issue. The present work shows the effect of different aging conditions on the performance of DSSCs fabricated using platinum nanoparticle based counter electrodes. Two conditions – room temperature under darkness (R-D) and heating (60 °C) under illumination (H-I) – were chosen for the aging studies. Platinum nanoparticles with a size of ∼2 nm were synthesized and a dip coating process was followed to fabricate counter electrodes. Electrolyte (iodide/triiodide) and counter electrode interaction were studied by fabricating symmetric cells composed of two platinized electrodes. It was found that platinum almost entirely reacted with the electrolyte within 51 days for the H-I condition aged symmetric cell, whereas R-D condition aging was relatively ineffective in the dissolution of platinum. Interestingly, in DSSCs aged under the H-I condition for 3 months, photoconversion activity was still observed, which was later attributed to the presence of platinum on the counter electrode. So, in short circuit conditions under illumination, the dissolution of platinum by the electrolyte is delayed. The R-D condition aged cell showed a smaller decrease in performance compared to the H-I condition aged cell. Other components of the DSSCs such as titania film and dye were also characterized. Finally, it was found that apart from dissolution of platinum from the counter electrode, desorption of additives or ions of electrolyte from titania are also responsible for the decay in DSSC performance with aging.

Effects of doping, morphology and film-thickness of photo-anode materials for dye sensitized solar cell application – A review

Abstract: Dye sensitized solar cells are attractive as simple and low cost renewable energy source. In dye sensitized solar cells, photo-anode plays significant role for collection and transportation of photo-excited electrons from dye to external electric circuit. Usually, wide band gap semiconducting metal oxides like titania, zinc oxide etc are deposited over transparent conducting substrate to prepare the photo-anodes. The performances of the photo-anodes depend on the band gap, morphology, composition of metal oxides and thickness of metal oxide layers. Enormous research efforts have been accomplished for studying the photo-voltaic characteristics of the dye sensitized solar cells by varying the aforementioned influencing parameters. However, the research activities executed towards the modification of photo-anode for dye sensitized solar cell application are quite scattered. It seems therefore important to summarize the research efforts executed towards the development of photo-anode for dye sensitized solar cell. In the present review, the effect of influencing parameters on the photo-voltaic characteristics of photo-anode for dye sensitized solar cell application is discussed. The descriptions have been made by summarizing the relevant literature reports.

Recent progress and utilization of natural pigments in dye sensitized solar cells: A review

Abstract: Although efficiency of Dye Sensitized Solar Cell (DSSC) is still below the performance level of the market dominance silicon solar cells, in the last two decades DSSC has gathered sufficient interests because of the simplicity in device fabrication and low material cost, and therefore, DSSC is providing a possibility of solar cells production at a low entry cost. This review presents the research progress made in the implementation of natural pigments in DSSC. These pigments function as dye sensitizers and they play a major role in DSSC by absorbing light, and supplying electrons to the semiconductor matrixes in the cell. The common choices of dyes are the metal complexes, organic and/or natural dyes. A better efficiency with higher durability is observed for DSSC using metal complexes and organic dyes, however, the process of synthesizing these dyes is laborious, costly, and involves the use of toxic materials. As an alternative, natural pigments (dyes) found in plants such as anthocyanin, carotenoid, aurone, chlorophyll, tannin, betalain and many others are accepted as dyes in DSSCs. These natural pigments are easily obtained from fruits, flowers, leaves, seeds, barks and various parts of plants. Despite the limited performance of natural dyes, the prevailing advantages of natural dyes include high absorption coefficients, high light harvesting efficiency, low cost extraction and low toxicity. This review provides insight into the usage of the various natural pigments as sensitizers, the techniques to improve the pigments performance in DSSC, an outlook on the developmental work on the application of natural pigments in DSSC and their limitation. Additionally, the paper discusses the overall operation principle and the recent developments of each component of DSSC, as well as, comparing the material cost between natural dye and synthetic dye DSSC.