Dye-sensitized solar cells : investigation of D-A-π-A organic sensitizers based on [1,2,5]selenadiazolo[3,4-c]pyridine

We report two series of D-A-π-A metal-free organic sensitizers for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) based on triphenylamine and N-hexyl-carbazole as electronic donors, respectively. Through varying auxiliary acceptors and π-spacers, several significant consequences on cell efficiency were identified: (i) a broadened UV-Vis absorption spectrum and low-lying LUMO level with [1,2,5]selenadiazolo [3,4-c] pyridine as auxiliary acceptor; (ii) compensation for the absorption valley around 400 nm in the UV-vis spectra by the introduction of a thiophene unit into the π-bridge; (iii) effective improvement of the power conversion efficiency (PCE) by means of cosensitization, leading to dye OKT-1 , 3.10% PCE, increased to 4.19% with squaraine dye SQ2 as co-sensitizer. The design criteria identified have opened the door for further optimization of this new dye family.

Citation

Knyazeva , E A , Wu , W , Chmovzh , T N , Robertson , N , Woollins , J D & Rakitin , O A 2017 , ' Dye-sensitized solar cells : investigation of D-A-π-A organic sensitizers based on [1,2,5]selenadiazolo[3,4- c ]pyridine ' , Solar Energy , vol. 144 , pp. 134-143 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2017.01.016

Publication

Solar Energy

Status

Peer reviewed

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2017.01.016

ISSN

0038-092X

Type

Journal article

Rights

© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This work has been made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the author created, accepted version manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2017.01.016

Description

The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Russian Science Foundation (grant no. 15-13-10022). Wenjun Wu thanks the Scientific Committee of Shanghai (14ZR1409700) for financial support. The authors thank the Leverhulme Trust for an International Network grant.

Collections

University of St Andrews Research

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/10023/12503