ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT

Dye-sensitised solar cells (DSSCs) have been recognised as one of the most promising alternatives to silicon-based devices, ensuring good photovoltaic efficiency while exploiting sustainable and low-cost materials. They display very high performances under diffuse and indoor light compared to conventional photovoltaic devices, and, more recently, they have also been proposed as an innovative solution in Agrivoltaics, due to their wave-selectivity, a unique feature within the photovoltaics landscape. In their most common architecture, DSSCs are based on a photoactive anode (a n-type semiconductor dyed with organic or organometallic dye) and an electroactive cathode, hosting in between a liquid or a quasi-solid electrolyte. In the latest years, added values to DSSCs performances came from innovations in device architecture, employment of p-type semiconductors, of highly conductive and CRM-free counter-electrode as well as the use of nanomaterials in different compartments of the cells, thus achieving semitransparency, controllable electrode/electrolyte interface, wave-selective absorption, and better stability with respect to organic dyes. Furthermore, new materials have been exploited to modify the rheology of the electrolyte leading to the development of quasi-solid or gelled devices. The present session aims at collecting the most recent developments in innovative, sustainable and functional nanomaterials implementations leading to the next generation of DSSCs.