Abstract
Copper oxide (CuO) semiconductor has been used as an enhancer to the efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Since DSSC are promising due to their advantageous properties. Many pieces of research have been done to improve their efficiency. It is noticeable that with using CuO within a composite of DSSC that their efficiency drastically rises. However, there have been many challenges to deal with optimizing the growth conditions such as the layer thickness, temperature, and the choice of dyes, electrolytes, substrate, and growth technique. The article provides the first survey of CuO-based DSSCs and highlights the usage of CuO in this type of solar cells. The merits of CuO photoanode and counter electrode. The relationship between many parameters and the efficiency of the solar cell with suggested factors as appropriate are tackled in this review. Emphasizing the best conditions to improve the performance of a CuO in DSSC has been concluded. All papers that directly deal with CuO usage in DSSC are cited. An investigation for the dyes and electrolytes used for CuO-based DSSCs which recorded higher efficiencies.