Impact of hydroxy and octyloxy substituents of phenothiazine based dyes on the photovoltaic performance
Two novel organic dyes containing hydroxy and octyloxy substituents onto a phenothiazine skeleton were synthesized and their effects on the photovoltaic performance were studied. Hydroxy acts as an ancillary anchoring unit along with the carboxylic group, while the phenothiazine modified moiety acts as an electron donor. The photophysical and electrochemical studies revealed that maximum absorbance of the dye with the hydroxy group in the solution was blue shifted and its band gap increased, indicating that donor acceptor strength was reduced as compared to the octyloxy substituted dye. Furthermore, electron lifetime of the organic dye with the hydroxy moiety was shorter due to smaller resi…
Performance of dye-sensitized solar cells based on novel sensitizers bearing asymmetric double D−π−A chains with arylamines as donors
Abstract Three novel, metal-free organic sensitizers bearing two asymmetric double donor-π-acceptor (D-π-A) chains ( DC1 - 3 ), each, and a reference dye containing single D-π-A chain ( SC ) with cyanoacrylic acid as electron acceptor are synthesized. Their photophysical, electrochemical properties and the performances of the corresponding dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) are further investigated. The dyes, DC1, DC2 and DC3 contain one chain with diphenylamine and another chain with carbazole or phenothiazine as electron donor, while diphenylamine is only employed as electron donor in SC . Compared to the inferior solar energy to electricity conversion efficiency ( η ) of 2.82%, 4.66% and…
Dithienopyrrolobenzothiadiazole-based organic dyes for efficient dye-sensitized solar cells
Four novel D–π–A metal-free organic dyes DTP1–4 containing a dithienopyrrolobenzothiadiazole (DTPBT) unit were synthesized and applied in dye-sensitized solar cells, where DTPBT was employed as a π-spacer for the first time. The photophysical, electrochemical and photovoltaic properties of the dyes were systematically investigated. The dyes DTP1–4 showed broad absorption spectra and high molar extinction coefficient, resulting in high light harvesting efficiency. In addition, the impacts of donors and the thiophene unit as an additional π-spacer were also studied. The results showed that the dye DTP4 with triphenylamine as the donor exhibited better photovoltaic performance than DTP1–3 with…
Anti-recombination organic dyes containing dendritic triphenylamine moieties for high open-circuit voltage of DSSCs
Abstract Three novel sensitizers with dendritic triphenylamine moieties were synthesized and used for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Their absorption spectra, electrochemical and photovoltaic properties were extensively investigated. All three DSSCs exhibit high open-circuit voltage over 0.8 V. The photovoltaic results indicate that the dendritic triphenylamine units improve the open-circuit voltage, which is attributed to the retardation of charge recombination, demonstrating that non-planar and larger molecules exert better blocking function. Under standard global AM 1.5 solar conditions, the best performance of the DSSCs exhibits a short-circuit current density of 10.35 mA cm−2, an …
Impact of the position isomer of the linkage in the double D–A branch-based organic dyes on the photovoltaic performance
Abstract Three organic dyes with double D–A system were synthesized and applied in the dye-sensitized solar cells. These dyes contain phenothiazine as an electron donor and cyanoacetic acid as an acceptor/anchor. Linkages were incorporated at the ortho-, meta- and para-positions and their impact on the performance of photovoltaic was observed. Among them, the dye with a para-position linkage exhibited the highest short-circuit photocurrent density (12.26 mA cm−2) and open-circuit photovoltage (756 mV), leading to the best overall efficiency (6.14%) due to better light harvesting capacity under standard global 1.5 AM conditions. Under similar measuring conditions the dyes with ortho and meta…
Synthesis and photovoltaic performance of asymmetric di-anchoring organic dyes
Abstract Two novel metal-free organic dyes bearing two asymmetric double donor–acceptor segments were synthesized. Their physical, optical, electrochemical properties and photovoltaic performances were investigated. Compared with the mono-anchoring dye containing single donor–acceptor chain, these new dyes exhibited a broader and much stronger absorption in the light wavelength ranging from 400 to 600 nm, showed higher IPCE values and short-circuit current density, which led to more efficient photovoltaic performance. The dye with triphenylamine and phenothiazine as two electron donors and two cyanoacrylic acids as two electron acceptors exhibited an impressive power conversion efficiency o…
Influence of spatial arrangements of π-spacer and acceptor of phenothiazine based dyes on the performance of dye-sensitized solar cells
Abstract Three phenothiazine based organic dyes PTA , PDTA and PTDA with D– π –A, π –D– π –A and A– π –D– π –A frameworks were designed and synthesized for the dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Phenothiazine with octyloxyphenyl moiety acts as donor while thiophene and cyanoacetic acid units act as a π -spacer and an acceptor, respectively. The effects of the molecular structures of the dyes on the performance of the DSSCs were investigated systematically along with their photophysical and photoelectrochemical properties. The dye PTDA with A– π –D– π –A framework exhibited a better light harvesting capacity and an effective electron extraction pathway from the electron donor to the TiO 2 s…
Novel dithieno[3,2-b:2′,3′-d]pyrrole-based organic dyes with high molar extinction coefficient for dye-sensitized solar cells
Abstract Three new metal-free organic dyes FD1 – 3 with a planar dithieno[3,2- b :2′,3′- d ]pyrrole unit as linker were synthesized and used for dye-sensitized solar cells with high molar extinction coefficients. In this work, dithieno[3,2- b :2′,3′- d ]pyrrole was employed as π-conjugated bridge to construct A–π– d –π–A organic dyes, where 9,9-dihexyl-9 H -fluorene was used as a donor, and cyanoacrylic acid as an electron acceptor. For a typical device, a solar energy conversion efficiency ( η ) of 6.36% based on FD2 was achieved under simulated AM 1.5 solar irradiation (100 mW cm −2 ) with a short-circuit photocurrent density ( J sc ) of 13.76 mA cm −2 , an open-circuit voltage ( V oc ) o…
Effect of the linkage location in double branched organic dyes on the photovoltaic performance of DSSCs
Two novel double branched D–π–A organic dyes (DB dyes) are synthesized to investigate the influence of the linkage location in DB dyes on the performance of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), where phenothiazine is introduced as a donor, thiophene–benzotriazole unit as the π-bridge and cyanoacrylic acid as the electron-acceptor. The photophysical, electrochemical and photovoltaic properties of the dyes are systematically investigated. The results show that the location of the linkage unit has a small effect on the physical and electrochemical properties of the dyes. However, when the dyes are applied in DSSCs, an obvious decline of short-circuit current (Jsc) and open-circuit voltage (Voc)…
Synthesis and photovoltaic performance of dihydrodibenzoazepine-based sensitizers with additional lateral anchor
Three novel metal-free organic dyes with dihydro-5H-dibenzo[b,f]azepine as a donor and cyanoacrylic acid as an anchoring unit were designed as an innovative linear skeleton of D-D-pi-A type of organic dyes. The conversion efficiency of the derived dye-sensitized solar cells is moderate. Among them, the dye with a hydroxy group as an additional anchoring moiety exhibited the highest UV-Vis absorption with a maximum molar extinction coefficient of 24,136 M-1 cm(-1) at lambda(max) = 458 nm and the best photovoltaic performance with an overall power conversion efficiency of 4.88%, while the dye with a carboxy group as an additional anchoring moiety exhibited the lowest conversion efficiency (4.…
Organic Dye Bearing Asymmetric Double Donor-π-Acceptor Chains for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells
A novel efficient metal free sensitizer containing asymmetric double donor-π-acceptor chains (DC) was synthesized for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Comparing to 3.80%, 4.40% and 4.64% for the DSSCs based on the dyes with single chain (SC1, SC2) and cosensitizers (SC1 + SC2), the overall conversion efficiency reaches 6.06% for DC-sensitized solar cells as a result of its longer electron lifetime and higher incident monochromatic photon-to-current conversion efficiency.
Phenothiazine-based dyes with bilateral extension of π-conjugation for efficient dye-sensitized solar cells
Four novel organic photo-sensitizers based on phenothiazine were designed, synthesized and characterized for efficient dye-sensitized solar cells. Anisole, octyloxybenzene and dodecyloxybenzene were incorporated into the phenothiazine by an Ullmann reaction. An additional octyloxybenzene was incorporated into one dye unit through a Suzuki coupling reaction. The modified phenothiazine moiety acts as an electron donor and cyanoacrylic acid acts as an electron acceptor and anchoring unit. The photophysical, electrochemical and sensitizing characteristics of the new dyes were evaluated. The bis(octyloxybenzene) substituted dye delivered the best performance with its sensitized solar cell displa…
Trilateral π-conjugation extensions of phenothiazine-based dyes enhance the photovoltaic performance of the dye-sensitized solar cells
Abstract Two novel organic dyes TLEP-1 and TLEP-2 based on phenothiazine with trilateral π-conjugation extensions were designed and synthesized for dye-sensitized solar cells, where phenothiazine ring was linked with two phenyl moieties at 7- and 10-positions as the first and second π-conjugation extensions, and with furan or thiophene ring at 3-position as the third π-conjugation extension for TLEP-1 and TLEP-2, respectively. The influence of the π-conjugation extensions on the photovoltaic performance was evaluated. The cell based on TLEP-2 exhibits an impressive short-circuit photocurrent density of 14.87 mA cm−2, which is much higher than the cell based on the reference dye without π-co…
Synthesis of phenothiazine-based di-anchoring dyes containing fluorene linker and their photovoltaic performance
Abstract A new di-anchoring organic dye based on phenothiazine featuring A-D-π-D-A (acceptor-donor-π-linker-donor-acceptor) configuration with fluorene as the π linker was designed and successfully synthesized. Compared to the corresponding mono-anchoring D-A congener, this new dye exhibited a broader and stronger absorption in the light wavelength ranging from 400 nm to 600 nm and thus showed a more efficient photovoltaic performance for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The overall power conversion efficiency (η) of this new dye in a sensitized solar cell amounted to 5.70%, which is 17% higher than that of the equivalent based counterpart (4.87%). On the other hand, the introduction of …