New and unconventional trends in dye-sensitized solar cells: materials, devices and attempts towards market entry

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) are the most successful devices in the field of photoelectrochemistry, due to their capability of converting sunlight into electricity by means of non-rare, toxic or expensive materials. About 30 years after their discovery, DSSCs are today in the prototyping phase at a large scale, in order to be used in sustainable buildings (as glass windows) and in portable electronics (to power rechargeable devices). This chapter describes the most recent developments in the field of DSSCs materials, with a particular focus on the replacement of platinum (cathode) and organic solvents (electrolyte), on the manufacture of flexible and large-area devices, on the integration of these photovoltaic cells with electrochemical reactors or energy storage devices.