Donor group influence on dye-sensitized solar cell device performances: Balancing dye loading and donor size
- Award ID(s):
- 1954922
- PAR ID:
- 10279905
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Dyes and Pigments
- Volume:
- 187
- Issue:
- C
- ISSN:
- 0143-7208
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 109074
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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null (Ed.)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.more » « less