Control of Interfacial Charge Transfer in Organic Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells Based on Cobalt Electrolytes

Yan Hao^a, Gerrit Boschloo^a, Erik Gabrielsson^b

^aOrganic Chemistry, Centre of Molecular Devices, Department of Chemistry, Chemical Science and Engineering, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), SE-10044 Stockholm, Sweden, 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, Yan Hao, 392
Publication date: 5th February 2015

The understanding of charge transfer dynamics in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) is of fundamental interest and the control of it is essential for the elevation of devices from the laboratory to large scale production. A key requirement for an excellent device performance is a highly efficient electron injection and regeneration of the oxidized dye.^1-3 These beneficial electron transfer processes are in competition with the decay of the excited state of the dye to the ground state and the recombination of injected electrons with dye cations. Recombination with the redox mediator is an additional process which can limit the overall efficiency as well. On the sight of slowing down the recombination between injected electrons and dye cations, a possible way to attenuate losses through recombination is to move the positive charge further away from the metal oxide surface. Herein by desigining the synthesis and describing the utilization of a supramolecular approach, a modified triphenylamine dye named E6 has been successfully used in dye-sensitized solar cell, where two external triphenylamine (TPA) donors via insulating aliphatic chains were introduced into donor part compared with D49, as shown in Figure 1. This molecule enables a charge transfer from the center triphenylamine group to the outer triphenylamine units and therefore possibly further away from the TiO₂ surface. Possibly due to its bulky structure it has an acceptable blocking effect to prevent the recombination of electrons from TiO₂ to the cobalt-based electrolyte. And by facilitated charge transfer from core to external TPA groups, the recombination to the oxidized form of the dye is also be suppressed as we expect. So, we are very positive to suggest the presented supramolecular approach for the improvement of the solar cells.
Figure 1: Chemical structures of D49 and E6.
1. Ghadiri, E.; Taghavinia, N. S.; Zakeeruddin, M.; Grätzel, M.; Moser, J. E.; Nano Lett 2010, 10, 1632-1638. 2. Listorti, A.; O'Regan, B.; Durrant, J. R.; Chem. Mat 2011, 23, 3381-3399. 3. Bauer, C.; Boschloo, G..; Mukhtar, E.; Hagfeldt, A.; J. Phys. Chem. B 2002, 106, 12693-12704.

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