Spectral engineering of semi-transparent dye-sensitized solar cells using new triphenylamine-based dyes and an iodine-free electrolyte for greenhouse-oriented applications

摘要

In the present investigation, a binary strategy for the development of wavelength-selective semi-transparent dyesensitized solar cells (DSSCs), with a proper transmittance in the region of photosynthetic active radiation, for greenhouses-oriented applications is examined. Two new low-cost triphenylamine-based dyes and a highly transparent iodine-free electrolyte are proposed as alternatives to the conventional expensive ruthenium-based dyes and yellowship iodine-based electrolytes for attaining more suitable optical characteristics to DSSCs that are intended to be used as cladding materials in greenhouses. The spectral engineered DSSCs demonstrated a quite high external quantum efficiency (almost 85%) in the whole blue and green part of the visible spectrum, while providing high transparency (up to 55%) in the red part, which is of the most important ones for the process of photosynthesis. The present work demonstrates that the development of solar cells with an energy conversion efficiency on the order of 6% combined with a crop growth factor of almost 35% is feasible. To the best of the authors? knowledge, these combined performance parameters are of the best-reported ones for ?agrivoltaics?, giving new insights for developing energy-autonomous greenhouses, further suggesting that spectral engineering is an effective strategy to improve the performance of DSSCs for niche applications.