A water-based and metal-free dye solar cell exceeding 7% efficiency using a cationic poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) derivative

Federico Bella; Luca Porcarelli; Daniele Mantione; Claudio Gerbaldi; Claudia Barolo; Michael Grätzel; David Mecerreyes

doi:10.1039/C9SC05596G

A water-based and metal-free dye solar cell exceeding 7% efficiency using a cationic poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) derivative†

Federico Bella,

*^a Luca Porcarelli,

*^bc Daniele Mantione,

^d Claudio Gerbaldi,

^a Claudia Barolo,

^e Michael Grätzel^f and David Mecerreyes

^cg

Author affiliations

* Corresponding authors

^a GAME Lab, Department of Applied Science and Technology – DISAT, Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129 – Torino, Italy
E-mail: federico.bella@polito.it
Tel: +39 0110904643

^b Institute for Frontier Materials, Deakin University, Waurn Ponds, Geelong, VIC 3217, Australia

^c Polymat, Institute for Polymer Materials, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Joxe Mari Korta Center, Avda. Tolosa 72, 20018 – Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain
E-mail: luca_porcarelli001@ehu.es

^d Laboratoire de Chimie des Polymères Organiques (LCPO – UMR 5629), Bordeaux INP, Université de Bordeaux, CNRS, 16 Av. Pey-Berland, 33607 – Pessac, France

^e Department of Chemistry, NIS Interdepartmental Centre and INSTM Reference Centre, Università degli Studi di Torino, Via Pietro Giuria 7, 10125 – Torino, Italy

^f Laboratory of Photonics and Interfaces, Institut des Sciences et Ingénierie Chimiques, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Station 3, 1015 – Lausanne, Switzerland

^g Ikerbasque, Basque Foundation for Science, Maria Diaz de Haro 3, 48011 – Bilbao, Spain

Abstract

A green, efficient and stable solar cell based only on water and safe and cheap elements of the periodic table is proposed in this work, finally consolidating (also from a sustainability viewpoint) the concept of “artificial photosynthesis” studied for decades by the scientific community. The concept of dye-sensitized solar cells is re-proposed here with a metal-free organic dye, an iodine-based electrolyte in a 100% aqueous environment and a new cathode (cationic PEDOT) synthesized for the first time with the aim of inhibiting the repulsion between the anions of redox couples and the PEDOT:PSS matrix commonly used as the counter-electrode. This elegant setup leads to a record efficiency of 7.02%, the highest value ever obtained for a water-based solar cell and, in general, for a photovoltaic device free of both organic solvents and expensive/heavy metals.

This article is part of the themed collections: Editor’s Choice: Zaiping Guo and Most popular 2019-2020 materials and energy chemistry articles

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/C9SC05596G
Article type: Edge Article
Submitted: 05 Nov 2019
Accepted: 26 Dec 2019
First published: 14 Jan 2020
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry

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Chem. Sci., 2020,11, 1485-1493

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A water-based and metal-free dye solar cell exceeding 7% efficiency using a cationic poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) derivative

F. Bella, L. Porcarelli, D. Mantione, C. Gerbaldi, C. Barolo, M. Grätzel and D. Mecerreyes, Chem. Sci., 2020, 11, 1485 DOI: 10.1039/C9SC05596G

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A water-based and metal-free dye solar cell exceeding 7% efficiency using a cationic poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) derivative†

Abstract

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A water-based and metal-free dye solar cell exceeding 7% efficiency using a cationic poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) derivative

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