Solar cell employing phosphorescent materials

A method of forming a dye sensitive solar cell (DSSC) device, comprising:

• providing a transparent front contact;
• providing a transparent back contact;
• forming donor particles that are each coated with a spacer layer, the forming comprising:
• providing phosphorescent particles dispersed on a silicon wafer maintained at 400° C.;
• spraying a mixture of 0.1 M titanium (IV) isopropoxide and 1.2 M acetylacetonate in ethanol on the phosphorescent particles;
• annealing the phosphorescent particles at 500° C. for 30 minutes;
• and
• repeating the spraying and annealing steps for a total of 40 cycles such that each phosphorescent particle is coated with the spacer layer having a thickness in the range of 8 nm to 10 nm;
• forming a transparent electrode on the transparent front contact, wherein the transparent electrode includes a donor-acceptor particle structure wherein each donor particle is coupled to a group of acceptor particles, and wherein the phosphorescent particles absorb high energy photons and emit lower energy photons that are absorbed by the acceptor particles;
• forming a counter electrode on the transparent back contact;
• and
• forming an electrolyte region between the counter electrode and transparent electrode;
• wherein the transparent electrode forms a light absorption region, which upon absorption of photons results in a flow of free electrons in the acceptor particles, injection of electrons into an inert nanoparticles current collector and transport of injected electrons by the inert nanoparticles current collector to the transparent front contact.