Numerical analysis of light soaking phenomenon in Ruthenium based Dye Sensitized Solar Cells

Abstract

Dye Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSCs) are widely considered one of the most promising third generation photovoltaic devices, especially thanks to their relatively low cost if compared to conventional solar cells. An interesting phenomenon affecting such devices is the so-called light soaking effect, consisting in the increase of cell main electrical parameters after the exposition to solar light. In this work, starting from the experimental characterization carried out on Ruthenium-based DSSCs, we report on a series of numerical analysis performed to better describe the above-mentioned light soaking effect in order to show the relationship between such phenomenon and the main physical parameters involved in photovoltaic generation in DSSCs. Our results show a good agreement between the experimental and the simulated data, hence allowing us to explain the trends followed by the main electrical parameters of DSSCs when exposed to solar light.