Sensitizer effects on DSSC performance under pan-illumination conditions

• A sensitizer-focused study towards optimizing indoor/outdoor DSSCs operation. • Pan-illumination strategy involving both electrolyte and dye components. • Excellent spectral matching combined with suppression of recombination. • Good performance under solar (0.1-1 sun) and artificial (100-1000 lux) light. A sensitizer-focused study towards optimizing dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) performance under both solar and indoor light sources was performed . After the electrolyte optimization step, the next step for our “pan-illumination’’ strategy involved investigation of the effects of different sensitizers under radically different light sources. Selected sensitizers were studied under both simulated solar and indoor fluorescent light sources, using DSSCs employing the “pan-illumination’’ tailored electrolyte. The most important factors for optimum “pan-illumination’’ performance under such different illumination conditions, were deemed to be the suppression of recombination, followed by the good spectral matching between absorber and light emission source. Charge carrier recombination was found to significantly impair performance under low light, even with a great spectral matching . This investigation led to DSSC optimization in terms of sensitizer components, for efficient operation under both solar and indoor lighting conditions.