Date of Submission

Spring 2013

Academic Program

Mathematics; Physics

Project Advisor 1

Matthew Deady

Project Advisor 2

Jennie D'Ambroise

Abstract/Artist's Statement

Renewable energy sources continue to play a crucial role in the conversation about global warming and alternate energy sources. Solar cells are widely recognized as a promising energy source, and photovoltaic solar cells (PV) are the most commonly used type of solar cell. However, dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) can be produced at a lower cost and have several other attributes that make them a favorable alternative to simple PV solar cells. This paper will discuss the physics behind PV and DSSC as well as the differential equations which describe the movement of charge carrier concentration called transport equations. These transport equations for a DSSC form a system of ODEs, which we reduce to one equation by making linear approximations of two of the species concentrations. Newton's Shooting Method and Runge-Kutta are used in order to numerically solve these transport equations.

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