Studies of coupled charge transport in dye-sensitized solar cells using a numerical simulation tool

In this paper, we present a simulation platform designed to study coupled charge transport in dye-sensitized solar cell (DSC) devices. The platform, SLICE, is used to study the influence of ions in the electrolyte on electron transport in the nanoporous medium. The simulations indicate that both cationic and anionic properties should be considered when modeling DSCs and similar systems. Addnl., it was found that the effective permittivity coeff., ε, has no influence on the electron transport when the ionic concn. is sufficiently high due to the strong coupling between the resp. charged species.