What is necessary to fill the technological gap to design sustainable dye-sensitized solar cells?

Abstract

Analysis of properties and data – both known and missing – related to materials selection, life cycle assessment, and end-of-life reuse and recycling options for device components to achieve a sustainable design of dye-sensitized solar cells.

Abstract

The deployment of photovoltaic technologies is forecast to increase substantially in the near to mid future to meet society's energy demand in a sustainable way. Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) in particular are a prime candidate to be integrated into buildings and to power a myriad of small electronic devices in outdoor and especially indoor environments. As the number of fabricated devices increases, serious consideration should be given to their end-of-life. In this perspective we evaluate various alternatives for each DSSC component from an environmental impact point of view, both during their fabrication and at their end-of-life. We analyze degradation factors occurring during a device's lifetime and discuss the few existing life cycle assessments for this technology, to determine which components can be reused or recycled, and which should be instead disposed of. Our findings show that DSSCs are a particularly sustainable technology; however further studies are needed to fully understand its environmental impact, especially for the scale up of the production process.