Herein, an ionic material (IM) with Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) characteristics is reported for the first time. The IM is designed by pairing a Nile Blue A cation (NBA+) with an anionic near-infrared (NIR) dye, IR820−, using a facile ion exchange reaction. These two dyes absorb at different wavelength regions. In addition, NBA+ fluorescence emission spectrum overlaps with IR820− absorption spectrum, which is one requirement for the occurrence of the FRET phenomenon. Therefore, the photophysical properties of the IM were studied in detail to investigate the FRET mechanism in IM for potential dye sensitized solar cell (DSSCs) application. Detailed examination of photophysical properties of parent compounds, a mixture of the parent compounds, and the IM revealed that the IM exhibits FRET characteristics, but not the mixture of two dyes. The presence of spectator counterion in the mixture hindered the FRET mechanism while in the IM, both dyes are in close proximity as an ion pair, thus exhibiting FRET. All FRET parameters such as spectral overlap integral, Förster distance, and FRET energy confirm the FRET characteristics of the IM. This article presents a simple synthesis of a compound with FRET properties which can be further used for a variety of applications.
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Open-shell donor–π–acceptor conjugated metal-free dyes for dye-sensitized solar cells
Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) have drawn a significant interest due to their low production cost, design flexibility, and the tunability of the sensitizer. However, the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the metal-free organic dyes is limited due to the inability of the dye to absorb light in the near-infrared (NIR) region, leaving a large amount of energy unused. Herein, we have designed new DSC dyes with open-shell character, which significantly red-shifts the absorption spectra from their counterpart closed-shell structure. A small diradical character ( y < 0.10) is found to be beneficial in red-shifting the absorption maxima into the NIR region and broadening up to 2500 nm. Also, the open-shell dyes significantly reduce the singlet–triplet energy gaps (Δ E ST ), increase the total amount of charge-transfer to the semiconductor surface, reduce the exciton binding energy, and significantly increase the excited-state lifetimes compared to the closed-shell systems. However, the closed-shell dyes have higher injection efficiency with increased intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) character. Our study reveals the design rule for open-shell DSC dyes to be able to absorb photons in the NIR region, which can increase the efficiency of the solar cell device.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1757220
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10251837
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Molecular Systems Design & Engineering
- Volume:
- 5
- Issue:
- 9
- ISSN:
- 2058-9689
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1477 to 1490
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Abstract A hexaradicaloid molecule with alternating Kekulé and non‐Kekulé connectivities between adjacent spin centers was obtained by fusing two conjugation motifs in Chichibabin and Schlenk hydrocarbons into a coronoid structure.1H NMR, ESR, and SQUID experiments and computational analyses show that the system has a singlet ground state with a significant hexaradicaloid character (
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1039/D0ME00091D
