The first photovoltaic cell ever designed was also the first photoelectrochemical cell. It was created in 1839, by Alexandre-Edmond Becquerel, at age 19, in his father's laboratory.
The mostly commonly researched modern photoelectrochemical cell in recent decades has been the Grätzel cell, although much attention has recently shifted away from this topic to perovskite solar cells, due to relatively high efficiency of the latter and the similarity in vapor assisted deposition techniques commonly used in their creation.
Dye-sensitized solar cells or Grätzel cells use dye-adsorbed highly porous nanocrystalline titanium dioxide (nc-) to produce electrical energy.