Pink is the new green.

Scientists at Ohio State University have developed new dye-sensitised solar cells (DSSCs) that are pink in colour.

'These new pink materials convert light to electricity with only half the efficiency of commercially-available silicon-based solar cells, at only one quarter of the cost,' said Yiying Wu, assistant professor of chemistry at Ohio State. 

Typical DSSCs use dye containing ruthenium, which is red in colour, and metal oxides such as titanium oxide or zinc oxide which are white in colour which mix to give the solar cells their pink colour.

Wu's research team is using zinc stannate, a complex oxide with tunable properties to increase the electricity produced. Zinc stannate belongs to a class of more complex oxides with tunable properties that opens up new possibilities for DSSCs in the future.

Colour determines the wavelength of light that a solar cell can capture, so adjusting the colour lets scientists optimise particular properties in how the device will function. So far in the development of DSSCs, scientists have achieved the best performance from red ruthenium dye.