Organic materials are generally considered to offer a range of new possibilities in terms of material use and device concepts. Although it is difficult to make firm statements about the different technologies in this category, there is every reason to believe that they may be produced at (very) low cost. Compared to organic/polymeric solar cells, […]

In order to predict outdoor module lifetimes, appropriate accelerated ageing tests are needed to make useful extrapolations to realistic outdoor conditions and to identify possible degradation mechanisms. A systematic investigation of intrinsic chemical stability was carried out on devices specially designed for high power applications [7]. For this purpose, accelerated ageing test procedures were developed […]

Environmental and accelerated ageing tests were performed on the indoor dye modules described in Sect. 7.6 in order to detect failure mechanisms. Contrary to expectations, many modules survived humidity/freeze cycling tests (10 cycles, 85%, 20 h at 55°C per cycle) without major degradation, demonstrating the capability of the sealing concept (see Fig. 7.8). This was […]

Besides the establishment of a reliable processing technology for nc-DSC, the long term stability of the cells/modules has to be guaranteed. The overall stability of the cell is controlled by the intrinsic and extrinsic stability. The intrinsic stability is related to irreversible (photo-)electrochemical degrada­tion of the dye and/or components of the electrolyte solution. Evaporation of […]

As mentioned in the introduction, nc-DSCs are expected in the short term to be available for low-power applications, competing with other thin film technologies, among which amorphous silicon is already an established tech­nology. One aspect of indoor applications which makes sealing somewhat less critical is the low temperature range under operation and storage, as well […]

A number of groups are working on upscaling nc-DSC technology for indoor and outdoor applications. Details of technological processing are not normally provided at this stage, but some general information reported in various papers is summarised in this section. The INAP/Germany consortium has been working on the upscaling and improvement of nc-DSC technology since 1995 […]

The presence of a liquid electrolyte requires hermetic sealing of the module in order to prevent evaporation of the solvent as well as intrusion of water and oxygen. The sealing materials have to meet several requirements: • chemical stability in contact with the liquid electrolyte, • excellent barrier properties in order to minimise solvent losses […]

An interesting and innovative approach to the industrial fabrication of nc – DSCs is to use a single-faced monolithic structure of consecutive porous lay­ers. In terms of production costs, the advantage of this concept over the ‘standard’ glass/glass design is that only one TCO-glass plate is required for a series connection of integrated cells, as […]