Metal Complex-Based Hole Transport Materials for Solid-State Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Rebecca Milhuisen^a, Muhammad Kashif^a, Yi-Bing Cheng^a, Udo Bach^a^,ⁱ, Barry Halsteadⁱ, Noel Duffyⁱ, Leone Spiccia^j, Christopher Chang^b^,^c^,^e^,^f, Jeffrey Long^b^,^d, Michael Nippe^b^,^f^,^k, David Zee^b, Jack Hellerstedt^g^,^h, Michael Fuhrer^g^,^h

^aMonash University, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, AU, Alliance Lane, 22, Clayton, Australia

^bDepartment of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, EE. UU., Berkeley, United States

^cDepartment of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, EE. UU., Berkeley, United States

^dDepartment of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Berkeley,, Berkeley, California 94720, EE. UU., Berkeley, United States

^eHoward Hughes Medical Institute, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, EE. UU., Berkeley, United States

^fChemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA, Berkeley, United States

^gSchool of Physics and Monash Centre for Atomically Thin Materials, Monash University, Victoria 3800, Australia

^hCenter for Nanophysics and Advanced Materials, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742-4111, United States

ⁱCSIRO Clayton Laboratories, Bayview Avenue, Clayton VIC, 3168, Australia

^jSchool of Chemistry, Monash University, Victoria 3800, Australia

^kDepartment of Chemistry, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77840, United States

^lMaterial Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, US, Berkeley, California 94720, United States

International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics
Proceedings of International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics (HOPV16)

Swansea, United Kingdom, 2016 June 29th - July 1st

Organizers: James Durrant, Henry Snaith and David Worsley

Poster, Rebecca Milhuisen, 164
Publication date: 28th March 2016

Solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells (ssDSCs) are of huge interest within the scientific community due to the growing need for renewable energy sources. Such technologies are compatible with robust and inexpensive manufacturing technologies like inkjet and role-to-role thin film printing. ssDSCs traditionally employ organic hole transport materials (HTMs) such as spiro-OMeTAD, however, its expensive synthesis route and poor conductivity has highlighted the need for new low-cost HTMs that are easy to be synthesised for application in thin film solar cells. Over the past few decades, research efforts have focussed mainly on organic small molecules, polymers and inorganic materials, however, the use of transition metal complexes as HTMs in ssDSCs remains largely unexplored.

Transition metal complexes are promising candidates to be considered as HTMs for solution processible thin film solar cells. The ligand structure can be manipulated to control the redox properties of the central metal atom as well as control solubility, morphology and electrical properties of the resulting metal complex. Here we report the synthesis and characterization of a new solution-processible HTM based on cobalt complex of a high denticity ligand. Solid-state thin films are largely amorphous and exhibit, surprisingly, a negative temperature coefficient of conductivity (dσ/dT) and non-Arrhenius behavior, having a solid-state conductivity of 3.0 S/m at room temperature and 7.4 S/m at 4.5 K. When applied as a HTM in a ssDSC, impressive solar energy conversion efficiencies of 5.7% were achieved. The lack of strong π – π interactions or high crystallinity as that seen in other organic-inorganic hybrid materials displaying negative temperature coefficients highlights this transition metal complex as a new class of charge transport material (CTM) with a unique charge transport mechanism that remains to be explored.

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International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics

International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics (HOPV) is celebrated yearly in May. The main topics are the development, function and modeling of materials and devices for hybrid and organic solar cells. The field is now dominated by perovskite solar cells but also other hybrid technologies, as organic solar cells, quantum dot solar cells, and dye-sensitized solar cells and their integration into devices for photoelectrochemical solar fuel production.

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