Expanding the application area of photovoltaics to urban environments demands high efficiency under low-intensity lighting conditions, as well as omnidirectional light trapping. Dye-sensitized solar cells are of particular interest in this regard, owing to their superior electricity production in dim light; however, an improvement in dye-sensitized solar cells efficiency is required for successful implementation. We developed a light-trapping layer within the photoanode of dye-sensitized solar cells and configured these cells into an angled three-dimensional (3D) array creating a submodule to improve efficiency. The light-trapping layer increases the travel distance of the light within the photoanode, thus improving electron generation by the photons of the omnidirectional incident light. The 3D angled array suppresses recombination and internal resistance losses, improving the collection efficiency by increasing the relative cell surface area with respect to the light projection area. Using the proposed configuration, we achieved a dye-sensitized solar cells submodule efficiency of 8.5% using 5%-efficient dye-sensitized solar cells with a pot-shaped light-trapping layer and a 60° angled 3D array for the submodule. Considering that there is room for further improvement, our proposed photovoltaics configuration is expected to overcome the current limitations of dye-sensitized solar cells, thus providing promising photovoltaics modules for urban environments.

将光伏电池的应用领域扩展到城市环境需要在低强度照明条件下的高效率以及全向光捕获。染料敏化太阳能电池在这方面特别受关注，因为它们在昏暗的光线下能产生出众的电能。然而，成功实施需要提高染料敏化太阳能电池的效率。我们在染料敏化太阳能电池的光阳极内开发了一个捕光层，并将这些电池配置为成角度的三维（3D）阵列，从而创建了一个子模块以提高效率。捕光层增加了光在阳极内的传播距离，从而改善了全向入射光的光子产生的电子。3D倾斜阵列可抑制重组和内部电阻损失，并通过增加相对于光投影面积的相对单元表面积来提高收集效率。使用建议的配置，我们使用效率为5％的染料敏化太阳能电池，并具有一个盆形的光捕获层和一个60°倾斜的3D阵列来实现染料敏化太阳能电池子模块的效率为8.5％。考虑到仍有进一步改进的空间，我们提出的光伏配置有望克服染料敏化太阳能电池的当前局限性，从而为城市环境提供有希望的光伏组件。我们使用效率为5％的染料敏化太阳能电池，并具有一个盆形的光捕获层和一个用于子模块的60°倾斜3D阵列，实现了染料敏化太阳能电池子模块的效率为8.5％。考虑到仍有进一步改进的空间，我们提出的光伏配置有望克服染料敏化太阳能电池的当前局限性，从而为城市环境提供有希望的光伏组件。我们使用效率为5％的染料敏化太阳能电池，并具有一个盆形的光捕获层和一个用于子模块的60°倾斜3D阵列，实现了染料敏化太阳能电池子模块的效率为8.5％。考虑到仍有进一步改进的空间，我们提出的光伏配置有望克服染料敏化太阳能电池的当前局限性，从而为城市环境提供有希望的光伏组件。