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Effect of electron-withdrawing groups in conjugated bridges: molecular engineering of organic sensitizers for dye-sensitized solar cells

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Abstract

Four organic sensitizers containing quinoxaline or benzoxadiazole as an auxiliary electron acceptor in conjugated bridge were synthesized and utilized for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). It was found that the incorporation of different electron-withdrawing moieties can affect the absorption spectra, electronic properties, the interfacial interactions and then the overall conversion efficiencies significantly. Therefore, the appropriate selection of the auxiliary acceptor was important to optimize the photovoltaic performance of solar cells. Among these sensitizers, LI-44 based solar cell showed the best photovoltaic performance: a shortcircuit photocurrent density (J sc) of 13.90 mA/cm2, an open-circuit photovoltage (V oc) of 0.66 V, and a fill factor (FF) of 0.66, corresponding to an overall conversion efficiency of 6.10% under standard global AM 1.5 solar light conditions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Hubei Key Lab on Organic and Polymeric Opto-Electronic Materials, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China

    Jie Shi, Zhaofei Chai, Runli Tang, Huiyang Li, Tianyou Peng, Qianqian Li & Zhen Li

  2. Hubei Key Laboratory of Oilcrops Lipid Chemistry and Nutrition, Oil Crops Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Wuhan, 430062, China

    Jie Shi

  3. Michael Grätzel Center for Mesoscopic Solar Cells, Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, China

    Hongwei Han

Authors
  1. Jie Shi
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  2. Zhaofei Chai
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  3. Runli Tang
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  4. Huiyang Li
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  5. Hongwei Han
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  6. Tianyou Peng
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  7. Qianqian Li
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  8. Zhen Li
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Correspondence to Qianqian Li or Zhen Li.

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Qianqian Li received her B.Sc. degree from Hubei University, China in 2004, and then obtained her Ph.D. degree at Wuhan University in 2009. She is now an associate professor at Wuhan University, and her research interests are in the design and synthesis of new electric and optical functional materials.

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Shi, J., Chai, Z., Tang, R. et al. Effect of electron-withdrawing groups in conjugated bridges: molecular engineering of organic sensitizers for dye-sensitized solar cells. Front. Optoelectron. 9, 60–70 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12200-016-0567-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12200-016-0567-6

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