Surface engineering in dye-sensitized solar cells

Eurig Jones^a, Arthur Connell^a, Sanjay Ghosh^a, Peter Holliman^a, Leo Furnell^a

^aBangor University, School of Chemistry, United Kingdom, Bangor LL57 2UW, Reino Unido, United Kingdom

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

Oral, Peter Holliman, presentation 139
Publication date: 5th February 2015

In dye-sensitized cells (DSSC), the dye-oxide interface is crucial to device performance. The step-change increase in DSSC performance occurred by sensitizing high surface area mesoporous titania photo-anodes using submersion dyeing to produce a mono-layer of dye [1]. However, whilst it is important to ensure complete dye coverage, it is also important to avoid over-dyeing which produces much less efficient dye aggregates. In more recent times, it has been shown that is is beneficial to have a donor-spacer-acceptor-linker arrangement of groups within the dye. In parallel with this, dyes designed with the HOMO located mainly on the donor and the LUMO mainly on the acceptor tend to show better injection efficiency. However, these parameters only work well if the dyes orient themselves correctly (both individually and collectivey) during adsorption. These issues become even more important if multiple dyes are used and also for the scaled manufacturing of DSSC modules [2]. Our approach to controlling these parameters has been to self-assemble dyes so that there is better control of the surface engineering at the oxide interface. We will report our recent approaches [3,4]to studying dyes with between one and three linker groups located at different positions around a common half-squarylium chromophore. Various characterisation techniques will be described which link the structural and electrical characteristics of the dyes to their binding modes and, ultimately, to device performance. Through these data, we will also report the highest performing dyes in this class (n = 5.5%).
Fig. 1 (Left) A meso-porous TiO2 scaffold [5] and (right) comparing geometries of adsorbed dyes
1. B. O’Regan, M. Grätzel, Nature, 1991, 353, 737. 2. P.J. Holliman, M.L. Davies, A. Connell, M.J. Carnie and T.M. Watson, Rapid, Low Temperature Processing of Dye Sensitized Solar Cells, in Functional Materials for Energy Applications, Eds. J.A. Kilner, S. J. Skinner, S.J.C. Irvine, P.P. Edwards 2012, Woodhead Publ, Cambridge. ISBN-13: 978 0 87509 059 1. 3. A. Connell, P.J. Holliman, M.L. Davies, C.D. Gwenin, S. Weiss, M.B. Pitak, P.N. Horton, S.J. Coles, G. Cooke, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2014, 2(11), 4055. 4. A. Connell, P.J. Holliman, E.W. Jones, L. Furnell, C. Kershaw, M.L. Davies, C.D. Gwenin, M.B. Pitak, S.J. Coles, G. Cooke, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2014, in press. DOI: 10.1039/c4ta06896c 5. TiO2 scaffold image – Dr Cecile Charbonneau, SPECIFIC, College of Engineering, Swansea University

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