Anomalous performance enhancement effects in Ruthenium-based Dye Sensitized Solar Cells

Abstract

Dye Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSCs) are nowadays more and more employed since they present lower production costs than traditional silicon photovoltaic devices. An interesting phenomenon affecting such devices consists in the fact that current density-voltage (J-V) characteristic can depend on the history of the cell prior to the measurement, which often can be assimilated to an anomalous hysteresis effect. In this work, we study such phenomenon on Ruthenium-based DSSCs through a series of measurements performed after applying different values of external electrical field to the cell. The measurements have been carried out both under simulated sunlight (AM1.5G - 1000 W/m2) and in the dark. We show that the initial electrical bias field changes the cell behavior not only when the sample is illuminated but also at dark condition.