Capturing Sunlight: Indoline Dyes Improve Efficiency of Solar Cells

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Current-voltage plot and photocurrent action spectrum for the sensitizer D205 the highest occupied molecular orbital of which is shown. (c) Wiley-VCH 2008
Current-voltage plot and photocurrent action spectrum for the sensitizer D205, the highest occupied molecular orbital of which is shown. (c) Wiley-VCH 2008

Solar cell technology is marching ahead, though it still struggles with the two problems: efficiency and high production costs. In collaboration with Satoshi Uchida at the University of Tokyo, Michael Grätzel and his research group at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne have now developed new sensitizers that should help an inexpensive type of solar cell to be more efficient. As they report in the journal Angewandte Chemie, the sensitizers are based on the dye indoline.


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