Dyeing and drying, but not dying

Nature Reviews Chemistry, Published online: 09 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41570-026-00856-1In 2015, Freitag and colleagues serendipitously discovered that dye-sensitized solar cells with copper-complex electrolytes continued to function after drying out, performing as well as their liquid predecessors. This launched a new class of sold-state devices, ‘zombie’ cells, with power-conversion efficiencies over 10% in sunlight and approaching 40% under indoor light.

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Dyeing and drying, but not dying

Nature Reviews Chemistry - In 2015, Freitag and colleagues serendipitously discovered that dye-sensitized solar cells with copper-complex electrolytes continued to function after drying out,...

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ICEMCR: International Conference on Energy Materials, Costa Rica

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PhD Studentship: Next-Generation Indoor Photovoltaics and AI-Integrated Energy Storage for Autonomous Environmental IoT at Newcastle University on FindAPhD.com

PhD Project - PhD Studentship: Next-Generation Indoor Photovoltaics and AI-Integrated Energy Storage for Autonomous Environmental IoT at Newcastle University, listed on FindAPhD.com

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Flash-Infrared-Annealing-Enabled High-Temperature Sintering of Photoanodes on Flexible Polymer Foils for Ultralight Photovoltaics

Ultralight photovoltaics are indispensable wherever every gram counts, from self-powered Internet of Things nodes to free-hanging greenhouse covers. In dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) the required 4...

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PhD Studentship: Next-Generation Indoor Photovoltaics and AI-Integrated Energy Storage for Autonomous Environmental IoT at Newcastle University on FindAPhD.com

PhD Project - PhD Studentship: Next-Generation Indoor Photovoltaics and AI-Integrated Energy Storage for Autonomous Environmental IoT at Newcastle University, listed on FindAPhD.com

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From Zombies to Smart Devices: The Evolution of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells for IoT Applications

The evolution of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) has been fundamentally shaped by advances in charge transport materials, with copper-based coordination complexes enabling efficient redox mediation and, uniquely, the in situ formation of solid-state hole transport networks. This Spotlight traces the materials design principles underpinning the “zombie” DSC, devices that maintain or even improve performance after the spontaneous solidification of a liquid electrolyte within the mesoporous TiO2 scaffold. Building on the 2015 demonstration of copper–phenanthroline complexes forming self-assembled, conductive matrices, we discuss the interplay of ligand rigidity, redox potential, and reorganization energy and compare with recent breakthroughs in cobalt and iron polypyridyl complexes as well as polyiodide systems. Advances in ligand engineering have yielded amorphous, robust hole conductors with conductivities exceeding 1 mS cm–1 and power conversion efficiencies up to 38% under 1000 lx indoor light, with less than 5% efficiency loss after 1000 h continuous operation. Rapid, scalable processing, such as direct electrode drying and microwave-assisted evaporation, now enables large-area modules to be fabricated in under an hour, with stable integration into Internet of Things (IoT) sensor systems. By uniting molecular design, process optimization, and real-world device integration, zombie DSCs offer a compelling route to sustainable, high-performance indoor photovoltaics and self-powered electronics. Envisioning a new phase of IoT, these DSCs can power small, autonomously operating sensor modules. Moreover, integrating local intelligence, such as resource-limited neural networks, allows on-device analytics and real-time energy management, boosting efficiency while relying solely on ambient light.

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Temperature-guided solidification of copper coordination complexes as hole transport materials

We report a rapid and controllable solid-state formation process of copper coordination complex hole-transport materials (HTMs) in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs), reducing processing times from ove...

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Unlocking high-performance photocapacitors for edge computing in low-light environments

Driving continuous, low-power artificial intelligence (AI) in the Internet of Things (IoT) requires reliable energy harvesting and storage under indoor or low-light conditions, where batteries face co...

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New standard developed for battery-free, AI-enabled IoT devices

A landmark international collaboration led by Newcastle University has developed the world's most efficient integrated light-harvesting and storage system for powering autonomous Artificial Intelligence (AI) at the edge of the Internet of Things (IoT).

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C60-based ionic salt electron shuttle for high-performance inverted perovskite solar modules

Although C60 is usually the electron transport layer (ETL) in inverted perovskite solar cells, its molecular nature of C60 leads to weak interfaces that lead to non-ideal interfacial electronic and me...

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