Themed collection Recent Advances in Solar Energy Conversion and Utilization

Synthesis of carbon-based nanomaterials through either a photocatalytic oxidative or photocatalytic reductive pathway.

This paper reviews the applications of light scattering in DSCs over the past two decades and some recent progress in this topic.

Electron and hole wavefunctions in semiconductor nanoheterostructures can be tuned to improve their light harvesting and charge separation properties.

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), as a type of promising energy conversion device, have received much attention in the past two decades due to their high efficiency and low cost.

A timely review of published iodine/iodide-free redox shuttles for liquid electrolyte-based dye-sensitized solar cells.

Deciphering complex, multiple-length-scale structures within organic and hybrid photovoltaics requires diverse techniques.

This tutorial review highlights the mechanisms and rates of excitation energy transfer in a variety of cyclic porphyrin arrays revealed by time-resolved spectroscopic measurements.

This tutorial review describes CO₂ reduction with particular focus on studying the thermodynamics and kinetics of CO₂ binding to metal catalysts.

Theoretical approaches for charge transfer rates from weak to strong electronic coupling in organic molecules for solar cells.

Supramolecularly modified carbon nanomaterials with photosensitizing electron donor or acceptor molecules for light energy harvesting applications are reported.

Patent applications for dye-sensitized solar cell technology have been analyzed over time, as well as technical, organizational, and geographical trends.

We introduce the application of “hercynite chemistry” in a nano-engineered structure for the solar thermochemical CO₂ process.

Solar driven hydrogen releasing from urea and human urine is achieved at zero-bias with the assistance of Ni(OH)₂-modified TiO₂ nanowires.

Simultaneous incorporation of bulky side chains and fluorine substituents on the conjugated backbone leads to highly efficient polymer solar cells.

In this work, we have realized nickel oxide (NiO) electrodes that serve as photocathodes in p-type dye-sensitized solar cells (p-DSSCs) sensitized by dendronized perylenediimides (PDIs).

Adding 10% water alters the energy level alignments and reduces recombination but has no effect on transport and cell stability.

Nonsacrificial water oxidation over PtO_x/WO₃ in aqueous NaIO₃ solution is enhanced upon modification by an O₂ evolution cocatalyst.

The photocatalytic activity of the CdS incorporated MCM-48 mesoporous photocatalysts was found to be dependent on the CdS loading and the pore size of MCM-48 siliceous support. The highest solar hydrogen evolution rate by visible light irradiation from the splitting of water was determined to be 1.81 mmol h⁻¹ per gCdS and the apparent quantum yield was estimated to be 16.6%.

Incessant interest has been shown in the synthesis of graphene (GR)–semiconductor nanocomposites as photocatalysts aiming to utilize the excellent electron conductivity of GR to lengthen the lifetime of photoexcited charge carriers in the semiconductor and, hence, improve the photoactivity.

Novel results from the application of common sense and robust methods to characterize electron transfer from dye-coated TiO₂ to iodine.

A 2-step thermochemical redox cycle is performed in a solar cavity receiver-reactor directly exposed to concentrated (>2800 suns) thermal radiation.