Analysis of Impurities of Ru Dye (N719) for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Introduction

Solar cells are classified into several types, including a crystalline silicon type, a thin-film silicon type, a compound system type (CIGS, etc.), and the organic system type (organic thin-film type and dye-sensitized type), etc. Of these, about 90 percent of the solar cells being manufactured now are crystalline silicon solar cells. However, due to their manufacturing cost and the instability of a high-purity silicon supply, research and development of the next generation of dye- sensitized solar cell is being promoted. The dye-sensitized solar cell is based on a system that generates electricity using dyes that are excited by light. This design has the advantages of hig flexibility in determining color and shape, as well as low manufacturing cost. However, a variety of problems with this approach must first be addressed, including a solar conversion efficiency that is only about 1/3 that of the crystalline silicon type, and reliability (endurance), etc. In particular, even a minute amount of impurity in the dye will have a very adverse affect on the solar conversion efficiency. Here we introduce an example of the separation and qualitative analysis of impurities in the widely used dye, Ru N719, using the LCMS-2020.

December 16, 2010 GMT