Efficient Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells with Copper Complexes as Hole Conductor

Gerrit Boschloo^a, Jinbao Zhang^a, Kári Sveinbjörnsson^a, Meysam Pazoki^a, Marina Freitag^a, Quentin Daniel^b, Licheng Sun^b, Anders Hagfeldt^c

^aUppsala University, Ångström Laboratory, Sweden, Lägerhyddsvägen, 1, Uppsala, Sweden

^bKTH The Royal Institute of Technology, Roslagstullsbacken 21, Stockholm, Sweden

International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics
Proceedings of International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics 2015 (HOPV15)

Roma, Italy, 2015 May 11th - 13th

Organizer: Filippo De Angelis

Poster, Marina Freitag, 080
Publication date: 5th February 2015

Until recently, there have been no viable alternatives for Spiro-OMeTAD as a hole-transport material (HTM) for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC).¹ In this study we show that copper phenanthroline complexes in the solid phase can act as efficient molecular hole conductors in DSSCs. Normally, DSSCs utilize a liquid redox electrolyte, but there are significant advantages in replacing it by a solid state hole transport material (HTM): The use of an HTM prevents dye desorption, electrolyte leakage and evaporation problems, as well as making series connection between cells much easier.² The photovoltaic performance of solid state-DSSCs is, however, usually much lower than its liquid counterparts.³ Here we present a new HTM alternative: bis(2,9-dimethyl-1,10-phenanthroline)copper(I/II) (Cu(dmp)₂). This copper complex has a straightforward synthetic route from low cost starting materials. We prepared solid-state DSSCs with the organic dye LEG4⁴ and Cu(dmp)₂as HTM with a power conversion efficiency of 8.2% under 1000 W m-2 AM1.5G illumination, having an open-circuit potential higher than 1.0 V. The successful application of a copper complex-based HTM paves the way for low-cost and efficient hybrid solar cells, as well as other optoelectronic devices. This type of material is anticipated to have large impact on current DSC and MSC research.
I-V curve of ssDSCs employing Cu(I/II)(dmp)2(TFSI)1/2 as HTM; (insert) device structure of the ssDSC
(1) Bach, U.; Lupo, D.; Comte, P.; Moser, J. E.; Weissortel, F.; Salbeck, J.; Spreitzer, H.; Gratzel, M. Nature 1998, 395, 583. (2) Hagfeldt, A.; Boschloo, G.; Sun, L.; Kloo, L.; Pettersson, H. Chem. Rev. 2010, 110, 6595. (3) Bai, Y.; Yu, Q.; Cai, N.; Wang, Y.; Zhang, M.; Wang, P. Chem. Commun. 2011, 47, 4376. (4) Yang, L.; Xu, B.; Bi, D.; Tian, H.; Boschloo, G.; Sun, L.; Hagfeldt, A.; Johansson, E. M. J. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2013, 135, 7378.

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