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Molecular engineering of dithiafulvene organic sensitizers with pyridine acceptor for high efficiency dye-sensitized solar cells

分子工程优化含吡啶受体的二硫富瓦烯敏化剂用于高效染料敏化太阳电池

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Abstract

Donor-π-acceptor (D-π-A) organic compounds have drawn keen interests as photosensitizers in dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Recent studies showed that pyridine ring as an electron-withdrawing anchoring group could lead to efficient electron injection. To improve the performance of pyridine containing sensitizers based DSSCs, the electron donor, π-bridge and the whole structure should be well engineered at molecular level. In this work, we prepared two monomer type dithiafulvene based sensitizers both with a pyridine acceptor but differing in the phenyl-thienyl (DTFPy3) and thienyl-phenyl π-bridges (DTFPy4), and two corresponding dimeric congeners D-DTFPy3 and D-DTFPy4, and tested them in DSSCs. It was found that the arrangement of the electron-rich thienyl group adjacent to the electron donor moiety in the π-bridge red-shifted in the absorption, and the dimeric sensitizers exhibited significantly enhanced absorption. Among them, D-DTFPy4 garnered the highest light harvesting efficiency, yielding an overall power conversion efficiency up to 5.26%.

摘要

近年来, 具有给体-π桥-受体结构的有机化合物作为光敏剂用于染料敏化太阳电池的研究引起广泛关注. 研究发现吡啶作为电子受体和吸附基团时可实现有效的电子注入. 为了提高含吡啶受体有机敏化剂的性能, 需要通过分子工程对电子给体, π桥和分子结构在分子层面上进行优化. 本研究以二硫富瓦烯为电子给体, 吡啶为电子受体, 合成了两个π桥结构分别为噻吩-苯和苯-噻吩的单体型敏化剂DTFPy3和DTFPy4, 对二者及其对应的二聚体型敏化剂D-DTFPy3和D-DTFPy4的研究发现, 调整π桥上富电子噻吩靠近给体一端时可使敏化剂的吸收波长红移. 另外, 二聚体型敏化剂可有效提高敏化剂的吸光强度. 在这四个敏化剂中, D-DTFPy4表现出最佳的光捕获效率, 以其制备的染料敏化太阳电池, 光电转换效率可达5.26%.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Interface Science and Engineering in Advanced Materials, Research Center of Advanced Materials Science and Technology, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan, 030024, China

    Yaxiong Cao  (曹亚雄), Jun Cheng  (成君), Fang Zhang  (张芳), Xiaozhong Liang  (梁效中), Jie Li  (李洁), Kunpeng Guo  (郭鹍鹏) & Shihe Yang  (杨世和)

  2. Department of Chemistry, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China

    Shihe Yang  (杨世和)

Authors
  1. Yaxiong Cao  (曹亚雄)
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  2. Jun Cheng  (成君)
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  3. Fang Zhang  (张芳)
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  4. Xiaozhong Liang  (梁效中)
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  5. Jie Li  (李洁)
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  6. Kunpeng Guo  (郭鹍鹏)
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  7. Shihe Yang  (杨世和)
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Correspondence to Kunpeng Guo  (郭鹍鹏) or Shihe Yang  (杨世和).

Additional information

Kunpeng Guo is currently a professor at Taiyuan University of Technology. He received his BSc degree in chemistry from ShanxiUniversity, and PhD degree in chemistry fromthe Key Laboratory of Photochemical Conversion andOptoelectronic Materials, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Then, he joined Prof. Shihe Yang’s group in Hong Kong University of Science and Technology as a postdoctoral researcher (Aug. 2010−Aug. 2012). In 2012, he joined the Research Center of Advanced Materials Science and Technology at Taiyuan University of Technology. His current research interests include organic light-harvesting materials, and organic luminescent materials.

Shihe Yang received his BSc degree in polymer chemistry/physics fromSun Yat-Sen University in China and PhD degree in physical chemistry in 1988 (with the Nobel Laureate Prof. Richard E. Smalley). He did post-doctoral research at Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Toronto (with the Nobel Laureate Prof. John C. Polanyi) before joining the faculty of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, where he is currently a full professor. His research interests include chemistry and physics of finite systems, clusters, nanomaterials, and energy conversion. He and co-workers made contributions to the understanding and development of cluster science, fullerenes/metallofullerenes, novel nanomaterials chemistry, new generation solar cells, solar fuels, and other energy conversion devices. His current interest is focused on solar energy nanoscience and nanotechnology.

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40843_2016_5119_MOESM1_ESM.pdf

Molecular engineering of dithiafulvene organic sensitizers with pyridine acceptor for high efficiency dye-sensitized solar cells

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Cao, Y., Cheng, J., Zhang, F. et al. Molecular engineering of dithiafulvene organic sensitizers with pyridine acceptor for high efficiency dye-sensitized solar cells. Sci. China Mater. 59, 797–806 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40843-016-5119-1

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