Metal-free organic dyes for TiO2 and ZnO dye-sensitized solar cells

Selopal, Gurpreet Singh; Wu, Hui-Ping; Lu, Jianfeng; Chang, Yu‐Cheng; Wang, Mingkui; Vomiero, Alberto; Concina, Isabella; Diau, Eric Wei Guang

doi:10.1038/srep18756

Cited by 75 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 70 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Overall, fused thiophene units such as 5 , 6 , 7 , and 8 among others, have been used as π‐conjugated linker to study photoelectronic properties in free metal dyes of the type A ‐bridge‐ D …”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the relevance of thiophene rings as bridge unit in acceptor‐bridge‐donor dyes on self‐aggregation and performance in DSSCs

et al. 2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The possibility of dye charge recombination in DSSCs remains a challenge for the field. This consists of: (a) back-transfer from the TiO to the oxidized dye and (b) intermolecular electron transfer between dyes. The latter is attributed to dye aggregation due to dimeric conformations. This leads to poor electron injection which decreases the photocurrent conversion efficiency. Most organic sensitizers are characterized by an Acceptor-Bridge-Donor (A-Bridge-D) arrangement that is commonly employed to provide charge separation and, therefore, lowering the unwanted back-transfer. Here, we address the intermolecular electron transfer by studying the dimerization and photovoltaic performance of a group of A-Bridge-D structured dyes. Specifically, eight famous sulfur containing π-bridges were analyzed (A and D remained fixed). Through quantum mechanical and molecular dynamics approaches, it was found that the formation of weakly stabilized dimers is allowed. The dyes with covalently bonded and fused thiophene rings as Bridges, 6d and 7d as well as 8d with a fluorene, would present high aggregation and, therefore, high probability of recombination processes. Conversely, using TiO cluster and surface models, delineated the shortest bridges to improve the adsorption energy and the stability of the system. Finally, the elongation of the bridge up to 2 and 3 units and their photovoltaic parameters were studied. These results showed that all the sensitizers are able to provide similar photocurrent outcomes, regardless of whether the bridge is elongated. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

show abstract

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the relevance of thiophene rings as bridge unit in acceptor‐bridge‐donor dyes on self‐aggregation and performance in DSSCs

et al. 2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Alternatively, strong efforts addressed the study of substituting organometallic dye with organic and natural ones . Metal‐free light absorbance molecules have easily tunable opto‐electronic properties and are more suitable for large scale production because of lower cost and availability of basic components, with respect of noble metals like ruthenium . However organic dyes have limitation relating to efficient electron injection of anchoring group and narrow spectral response, thus most of the literature is focused on broadening the spectral absorbance and increasing chemical compatibility with ZnO .…”

Section: Surface‐engineering Of Zno Nanostructures With Nanoparticlesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Surface Engineering of Nanostructured ZnO Surfaces

Laurenti

Stassi

Canavese

et al. 2016

Adv Materials Inter

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

are oriented in one direction and their assembly and stacking produces the wurtzite hexagonal symmetry. The noncentrosymmetric and anisotropic crystalline structure of wurtzite-like ZnO generates very interesting properties such as piezo-and pyro-electricity: the application of an external stimulus, like mechanical stress or temperature, deforms the tetrahedron structure. This deformation results in a separation between the positive and negative centers of charge, inducing the formation of a dipole moment. [7,8] The polar surface and anisotropic structure of ZnO can be usefully exploited to form different kinds of micro and nanostructures from 0D to 3D, [5] including, but not limited to nanowires, [9][10][11][12] nanotubes, [13,14] nanobelts, [15][16][17][18][19] nanorings, [20] flower-like morphologies, [21][22][23][24][25] multipods, [26,27] tetrapods, [28][29][30] sponge-like structures [31][32][33][34] and so on [29,[35][36][37][38][39] (Figure 1). Therefore, several research efforts have been invested in studying various preparation procedures for ZnO micro and nano-materials. Wet chemical approaches, like sol-gel, hydrothermal growths, electrodeposition and template-assisted routes, [40,41] as well as vapor-phase methods, for example chemical vapour deposition (CVD), physical vapour deposition (PVD) including sputtering and evaporation approaches, [42][43][44] and epitaxial growth methods [45] are among the most used ones. The great advantages of the wet chemical approaches are the high synthesis versatility, low temperature employed and low costs. [9] From the other side, dry methods take advantage of the high quality and excellent control over the level of crystallinity of the synthesized ZnO structures, as well as the absence of contamination and high purity of the final material. [46] The combination of different properties with the ease and high versatile synthesis of ZnO material in different micro and nanostructures offers a huge possibility of potential applications.For example, ZnO is already used as an efficient catalyst in the selective oxidation of involving oxygenates (i.e., alcohols, aldehydes, and carboxylic acids) and in methanol synthesis catalysts. It is also largely applied as protective, anti-corrosion layer in galvanized steel products, [49][50][51] as well as in paints and sunscreens as an UV absorber. Its biocompatibility makes this material suitable, in the form of microparticles, for paste formulations in cosmetic applications.The combination of the piezoelectric with the semiconducting properties of ZnO is found to result into new exciting physical properties, [52][53][54] and it has recently opened the research field to energy harvesting application. ZnO nanomaterials can be thus used as nanogenerators, able to convert the mechanical deformation from the surrounding environment into electrical Zinc Oxide (ZnO) nanostructures represent promising substrate materials for numerous applications, ranging from new generation solar cells, to bio-and chemical sensors. This interest is due ...

show abstract

“…From the last two decades, DSSCs have achieved an enormous attention as a low cost and potential substitute to conventional Si solar cells [6,7]. A typical DSSC includes a photoanode (usually TiO2) and a platinum counter electrode separated by an electrolyte having an iodide/triiodide (I − /I3 − ) redox couple [8,9]. As zinc oxide (ZnO) and titanium dioxide (TiO2) possess almost identical band gap energies as well as equal value of electron affinities hence ZnO can be considered as the closest and potential substitute to TiO2 as photoanode material in DSSCs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of Different Organic Dyes and their Impregnation Periods on Photovoltaic Performance of ZnO Based Dye Sensitized Solar Cells

Siwach¹,

Mohan²,

Barala³

et al. 2018

Asian J. Chem.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Light absorption in dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) depends significantly on the type of sensitizer and its impregnation period. Since dye plays a vital role to broaden the light absorbance of semiconductor photoanode towards the visible region of spectra. The present study reports the effect of two types of organic dyes namely N719 and N749 (black dye) as well as their impregnation periods of 12 h and 24 h, respectively, on the photovoltaic performance of zinc oxide based DSSCs. Zinc oxide photoanode films were deposited on indium tin oxide substrates by doctor blade technique. The DSSC impregnated with N719 dye for the period of 24 h exhibited the highest value of photon conversion efficiency. This happened as the photoanode film impregnated with N719 dye for 24 h exhibited the highest optical absorption in the UV region as well as in visible region of spectra. The solar cell impregnated with N719 dye for the period of 24 h performed with the highest short-circuit density (JSC) of 9.38 mA/cm 2 , fill factor (FF) of 0.50, open circuit voltage (VOC) of 0.71 V and conversion efficiency (η) of 3.32 %.

show abstract

Metal-free organic dyes for TiO2 and ZnO dye-sensitized solar cells

Cited by 75 publications

References 70 publications

Exploring the relevance of thiophene rings as bridge unit in acceptor‐bridge‐donor dyes on self‐aggregation and performance in DSSCs

Exploring the relevance of thiophene rings as bridge unit in acceptor‐bridge‐donor dyes on self‐aggregation and performance in DSSCs

Surface Engineering of Nanostructured ZnO Surfaces

Effect of Different Organic Dyes and their Impregnation Periods on Photovoltaic Performance of ZnO Based Dye Sensitized Solar Cells

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About