There can be little doubt that energy is the single-most pressing issue facing humanity in the 21st century.
As society becomes more technologically advanced and a greater proportion of the Earth’s population has access to that range of technology, energy requirements will reach unprecedented levels.
Current forms of energy production can’t be used to satisfy these requirements, as the environmental damage would be unacceptable and the finite resources would be depleted very quickly. Solar power represents the obvious solution to provide these energy requirements, but ways to harvest it cheaply and with the minimal environmental footprint must be found.
Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have the potential to meet these requirements, but there are still issues that limit the cell’s ultimate performance. This progress report explores efforts using carbonaceous materials to overcome some of these issues to develop highly efficient DSSCs.
Advanced Science is a new journal from the team behind Advanced Materials, Advanced Functional Materials, and Small. The journal is fully Open Access and is free to read now at www.advancedscience.com.
