Supramolecular photochemistry and solar cells

Abstract

Supramolecular photochemistry as well as solar cells are fascinating topics of current interest in Inorganic Photochemistry and very active research fields which have attracted wide attention in last two decades. A brief outline of the investigations in these fields carried out in our Laboratory of Inorganic Photochemistry and Energy Conversion is given here with no attempt of an exhaustive coverage of the literature. The emphasis is placed on recent work and information on the above mentioned subjects. Three types of supramolecular systems have been the focus of this work: (i) cage-type coordination compounds; (ii) second-sphere coordination compounds, exemplified by ion-pair photochemistry of cobalt complexes and (iii) covalently-linked systems. In the latter, modulation of the photoluminescence and photochemistry of some rhenium complexes are discussed. Solar energy conversion and development of thin-layer photoelectrochemical solar cells based on sensitization of nanocrystalline semiconductor films by some ruthenium polypyridyl complexes are presented as an important application that resulted from specifically engineered artificial assemblies.

Photochemical Properties of trans‐[Ru(NH3)4(bpa)(L)]2+ (L = py, isn, 4‐acpy or 4‐pic)

“…In an energy photoconversion process, an electronically excited molecule adsorbed on a semiconductor injects electrons into its conduction band, allowing the photochemical or photocatalytic process to occur . The possibility of converting light energy into electricity through this process has been the subject of intense experimental research . However, for the use of these dyes as light energy converters to be effective, there is a need to know the photochemical processes that occur during electronic excitation.…”

Inkjet-printed graphene electrodes for dye-sensitized solar cells

“…The most widely used sensitizers are those based on heavy transition metal co-ordination compounds (e.g. ruthenium (Ru) polypyridyl complexes) [23,29] due to their efficient metal-to ligand charge transfer, intense charge-transfer absorption across the visible range and long excited lifetime [23]. However, Ru-polypyridyl based complexes are expensive (~1200 $/g) [30], and contain a heavy rare earth metal, which is environmentally undesirable [31].…”