'Donor-free' oligo(3-hexylthiophene) dyes for efficient dye-sensitized solar cellsElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available. See DOI: 10.1039/c5ta09133k

The common trend in designing dyes for use in DSSCs with iodide-based electrolyte is based on a donor-π spacer-acceptor (D-π-A) architecture. Here, we report two 'donor-free' cyanoacrylic end-functionalized oligo(3-hexylthiophene) dyes ( 5T and 6T ). Despite having no donor group, both dye...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Hu, Yue, Ivaturi, Aruna, Planells, Miquel, Boldrini, Chiara L, Biroli, Alessio Orbelli, Robertson, Neil
Format: Article
Language:
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The common trend in designing dyes for use in DSSCs with iodide-based electrolyte is based on a donor-π spacer-acceptor (D-π-A) architecture. Here, we report two 'donor-free' cyanoacrylic end-functionalized oligo(3-hexylthiophene) dyes ( 5T and 6T ). Despite having no donor group, both dyes show reversible first oxidation process. Both 5T and 6T have n -hexyl alkyl chains to retard aggregation at different positions as well as different numbers of thiophene moieties. However, the dyes showed similar absorption properties and redox potentials. The DSSCs based on these dyes give power conversion efficiencies of more than 7%, although a significant difference in the V OC and FF has been observed. Using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, this is attributed to the presence of more trap states when 6T attaches to TiO 2 and modifies the surface, mainly affecting the fill factor. Overall, these dyes introduce a new and effective design concept for liquid-electrolyte DSSC sensitisers. Easily synthesized 'donor-free' dyes work as efficient sensitisers for dye-sensitised solar cells.
ISSN:2050-7488
2050-7496
DOI:10.1039/c5ta09133k