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The photoactive materials in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) are conventionally produced by colloid coating and heat treatment followed by dye adsorption by dipping in solution. One disadvantage of this procedure is that only heat-resistant materials can be used. Here the one-step self-assembly of ZnO/eosin Y thin films is reported. It is shown that a large proportion of the incorporated eosin Y dye molecules act as sensitizers, making the films suitable as sensitized photoelectrodes in DSSCs. No heat treatment is required, allowing non-heat-resistant substrates such as flexible conductive plastic films to be used.
Yoshida et al. (Tue,) studied this question.