Molecular Design of Efficient Organic D-A-pi-A Dye Featuring Triphenylamine as Donor Fragment for Application in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

0485898 - ÚFCH JH 2019 RIV DE eng J - Journal Article
Ferdowsi, P. - Saygili, Y. - Zhang, W. - Edvinson, T. - Kavan, Ladislav - Mokhtari, J. - Zakeerudin, S. M. - Grätzel, M. - Hagfeldt, A.
Molecular Design of Efficient Organic D-A-pi-A Dye Featuring Triphenylamine as Donor Fragment for Application in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells.
ChemSusChem. Roč. 11, č. 2 (2018), s. 494-502. ISSN 1864-5631. E-ISSN 1864-564X
R&D Projects: GA ČR GA13-07724S
Institutional support: RVO:61388955
Keywords : Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells * Electrolytes * Donor-acceptor systems
OECD category: Electrochemistry (dry cells, batteries, fuel cells, corrosion metals, electrolysis)
Impact factor: 7.804, year: 2018

A metal-free organic sensitizer, suitable for the application in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), has been designed, synthesized and characterized both experimentally and theoretically. The structure of the novel donor-acceptor-π-bridge-acceptor (D-A-π-A) dye incorporates a triphenylamine (TPA) segment and 4-(benzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazol-4-ylethynyl)benzoic acid (BTEBA). The triphenylamine unit is widely used as an electron donor for photosensitizers, owing to its nonplanar molecular configuration and excellent electron-donating capability, whereas 4-(benzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazol-4-ylethynyl)benzoic acid is used as an electron acceptor unit. The influences of I3 -/I-, [Co(bpy)3]3+/2+ and [Cu(tmby)2]2+/+ (tmby=4,4',6,6'-tetramethyl-2,2'-bipyridine) as redox electrolytes on the DSSC device performance were also investigated. The maximal monochromatic incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency (IPCE) reached 81% and the solar light to electrical energy conversion efficiency of devices with [Cu(tmby)2]2+/+ reached 7.15%. The devices with [Co(bpy)3]3+/2+ and I3 -/I- electrolytes gave efficiencies of 5.22% and 6.14%, respectively. The lowest device performance with a [Co(bpy)3]3+/2+-based electrolyte is attributed to increased charge recombination.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0280822