Co-adsorbents: a key component in efficient and robust dye-sensitized solar cells.

Since the establishment of dye-sensitized solar cells in the early '90s, both the efficiency and stability of these third generation photovoltaics have been greatly enhanced. Nevertheless, there still exist many unwanted processes that impede operation of dye-sensitized solar cells, encumbering the achievement of the maximum theoretical power conversion efficiency and decreasing the devices' long-term operation. These processes include charge recombination, dye aggregation, dye desorption, and high protonation degrees of the semiconductor's surface. This Minireview focuses on a powerful strategy developed to address these problems, namely the use of co-adsorbents. All types of co-adsorbents utilized thus far are categorized in terms of the chemical identity of their anchoring group; in addition their operational mechanisms are presented and the properties that a functional molecule should possess to be applied as an efficient co-adsorbent are discussed.