A simple method for modeling dye-sensitized solar cells

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) are photoelectrochemical photovoltaics based on complicated electrochemical reactions. The modeling and simulation of DSCs are powerful tools for evaluating the performance of DSCs according to a range of factors. Many theoretical methods are used to simulate DSCs. On the other hand, these methods are quite complicated because they are based on a difficult mathematical formula. Therefore, this paper suggests a simple and accurate method for the modeling and simulation of DSCs without complications. The suggested simulation method is based on extracting the coefficient from representative cells and a simple interpolation method. This simulation method was implemented using the power electronic simulation program and C-programming language. The performance of DSCs according to the TiO2 thickness was simulated, and the simulated results were compared with the experimental data to confirm the accuracy of this simulation method. The suggested modeling strategy derived the accurate current-voltage characteristics of the DSCs according to the TiO2 thickness with good agreement between the simulation and the experimental results. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.