Dye functionalisation of PAMAM-type dendrons grown from vertically aligned single-walled carbon nanotube arrays for light harvesting antennae

Abstract

Vertically aligned single-walled carbon nanotube arrays have shown great promise for applications as electrochemical devices due to their high conductivity and large electrode surface area. There has also been research showing that they can be applied to transparent photovoltaic devices. In this work we synthesised vertically aligned single-walled carbon nanotube arrays and further modified these with PAMAM-type dendrons. These dendrons have previously been shown to increase the photovoltaic performance of the nanotube arrays. The dendrons were then further modified using a ruthenium based dye, commonly known as N3. The presence of this dye on increasing generations of dendron was investigated using electrochemistry to determine the surface concentration and electron transfer co-efficient, with the dye modified generation 1.5 dendron providing the highest surface N3 concentration with 1.98 Â 10 13 molecules cm À2 . Additionally, photovoltaic testing was performed on each generation and the optimal dye modification was found to provide a 35% increase in power output after the dendron functionalisation whilst still using very little material and remaining transparent.

Surface Functionalization of Fluorine-Doped Tin Oxide Samples through Electrochemical Grafting

“…44−46 Because of its novelty, the early applications are still limited to thin film photovoltaics, 47 dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), 48 and photoelectrochemical based devices. 49 Recent studies on self-cleaning surfaces made by FTO are growing in number. 50 In literature, only a few recent papers concerning the covalent modification of FTO surfaces are available.…”

“…Among the other new fascinating optomaterials, fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) is an emerging TCO that overcomes all of these limitations: the electronconductivity is achieved by fluorine atoms (instead of oxygen vacancies) that give stability to the lattice to chemical attack, also at low pH, resulting in a nontoxic, fully biocompatible, and cost-affordable TCO material. − Because of its novelty, the early applications are still limited to thin film photovoltaics, dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), and photoelectrochemical based devices . Recent studies on self-cleaning surfaces made by FTO are growing in number .…”

“…Recent studies on self-cleaning surfaces made by FTO are growing in number . In literature, only a few recent papers concerning the covalent modification of FTO surfaces are available. ,, However, the limitation to FTO surface modification is that occurring chemical reactions are not selective. So far to our knowledge, no works concerning selective and efficient surface modification are reported.…”

Dendronization: A Useful Synthetic Strategy to Prepare Multifunctional Materials

“…In this way, synthesized series of polycationic dendron-MWNT constructs with a precisely tailored number of amino functions (dendron generations) can complex and effectively deliver double-stranded siRNA to achieve gene silencing in vitro [149]. Recently, chemical modification of CNT arrays attached to conductive transparent electrodes with PAMAM-type dendrons has been undertaken to enhance the photoresponse of photovoltaic devices [150,151].…”