Influence of the Terminal Electron Donor in D–D−π–A Organic Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells: Dithieno[3,2-b:2′,3′-d]pyrrole versus Bis(amine)

Abstract

With respect to the electron-withdrawing acceptors of D-A-π-A organic dyes, reports on the second electron-donating donors for D-D-π-A organic dyes are very limited. Both of the dyes have attracted significant attention in the field of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs). In this work, four new D-D-π-A organic dyes with dithieno[3,2-b:2',3'-d]pyrrole (DTP) or bis(amine) donor have been designed and synthesized for a investigation of the influence of the terminal electron donor in D-D-π-A organic dye-sensitized solar cells. It is found that DTP is a promising building block as the terminal electron donor when introduced in the dithiophenepyrrole direction, but not just a good bridge, which exhibits several characteristics: (i) efficiently increasing the maximum molar absorption coefficient and extending the absorption bands; (ii) showing stronger charge transfer interaction as compared with the pyrrole direction; (iii) beneficial to photocurrent generation of DSCs employing cobalt electrolytes. DSCs based on M45 with the Co-phen electrolyte exhibit good light-to-electric energy conversion efficiencies as high as 9.02%, with a short circuit current density (JSC) of 15.3 mA cm(-2), open circuit voltage (VOC) of 867 mV and fill factor (FF) of 0.68 under AM 1.5 illumination (100 mW cm(-2)). The results demonstrate that N,S-heterocycles such as DTP unit could be promising candidates for application in highly efficient DSCs employing cobalt electrolyte.

Electron‐Affinity‐Triggered Variations on the Optical and Electrical Properties of Dye Molecules Enabling Highly Efficient Dye‐Sensitized Solar Cells

“…[13][14][15] In this regard, systematic studies on the structure-electrochemical property relationship are critically important. [16][17][18][19][20][21][22] Moreover, the reported systematic studies on DSCs were mostly assembled with cobalt or iodine electrolyte,l imiting the attainable open-circuit voltage (V OC ).…”

Sulfur- and Nitrogen-Containing Porous Donor-Acceptor Polymers as Real-Time Optical and Chemical Sensors

“…Here, we can appreciate the advantage of the modular makeup of SNPs: strong donor-acceptor interactions in SNPs that contain directly linked triazine-and thiophen-moieties enable more efficient charge transfer -and, hence, comparatively faster exciton decay -than their counterparts where D and A moieties are separated by an aryl spacer. [37][38][39] This small increase in fluorescence life-times in SP-BTT can be explained by a partial transfer of electron density from the central benzene ring of the benzotrithiophene core. It is worth to note, that the fluorescence intensity of SNPs in the solid state is completely quenched to the naked eye after exposure to HCl vapors after 30 seconds, and it is fully recovered after exposure to ammonia (Figure 2c, d).…”

The Hagfeldt Donor and Use of Next‐Generation Bulky Donor Designs in Dye‐Sensitized Solar Cells

“…Importantly, this strategy has shown widespread applicability regardless of the dye π‐bridge structure with thiophene and thiophene derivative‐based dyes ( W10 , JK‐314 , MA45 , LP227 , AH7 , TK6 , XW70 , QX02 , SGT‐103 , AP16 ), quinoxaline‐derived dyes ( YA422 , S3 , DT‐1 , FNE53 ), benzothiadiazole‐based dyes ( RR9 , C275 , C281 , ZL003 ), diketopyrrolopyrrole‐based dyes ( DPP17 ), and porphyrin‐based dyes ( XW51 , SGT‐021 , 2,4‐ZnP‐CN‐COOH ), which are all used to generate relatively low‐recombination‐rate systems (Figure ). The most common approach used is the incorporation of aryl alkyl ether groups where the aryl is benzene (16 examples in Figure ).…”