Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) offer the possibilities to design solar cells with a large flexibility in shape, color, and transparency. DSC research groups have been established around the worl ...

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Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) have attracted considerable attention in recent years as they offer the possibility of low-cost conversion of photovoltaic energy This Review focuses on recent advances in molecular design and technological aspects of metal-free organic dyes for applications in dye-sensitized solar cells Special attention has been paid to the design principles of these dyes and on the effect of various electrolyte systems Cosensitization, an emerging technique to extend the absorption range, is also discussed as a way to improve the performance of the device In addition, we report on inverted dyes for photocathodes, which constitutes a relatively new approach for the production of tandem cells Special consideration has been paid to the correlation between the molecular structure and physical properties to their performance in DSSCs

Metal-Free Organic Dyes for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells: From Structure: Property Relationships to Design Rules

Arylamine organic dyes with donor (D), π-bridge (π) and acceptor (A) moieties for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) have received great attention in the last decade because of their high molar absorption coefficient, low cost and structural variety. In the early stages, the efficiency of DSCs with arylamine organic dyes with D–π–A character was far behind that of DSCs with ruthenium(II) complexes partly due to the lack of information about the relationship between the chemical structures and the photovoltaic performance. However, exciting progress has been recently made, and power conversion efficiencies over 10% were obtained for DSCs with arylamine organic dyes. It is thus that the recent research and development in the field of arylamine organic dyes employing an iodide/triiodide redox couple or polypyridyl cobalt redox shuttles as the electrolytes for either DSCs or solid-state DSCs has been summarized. The cell performance of the arylamine organic dyes are compared, providing a comprehensive overview of arylamine organic dyes, demonstrating the advantages/disadvantages of each class, and pointing out the field that needs to reinforce the research direction in the further application of DSCs.

Arylamine organic dyes for dye-sensitized solar cells

The high performance and low cost of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have drawn great interest from both academic and industrial circles. The research on exploring novel efficient sensitizers, especially on inexpensive metal-free pure organic dyes, has never been suspended. The donor–π bridge–acceptor (D–π–A) configuration is mainstream in the design of organic sensitizers due to its convenient modulation of the intramolecular charge-transfer nature. Recently, it has been found that incorporation of additional electron-withdrawing units (such as benzothiadiazole, benzotriazole, quinoxaline, phthalimide, diketopyrrolopyrrole, thienopyrazine, thiazole, triazine, cyanovinyl, cyano- and fluoro-substituted phenyl) into the π bridge as internal acceptors, termed the D–A–π–A configuration, displays several advantages such as tuning of the molecular energy levels, red-shift of the charge-transfer absorption band, and distinct improvement of photovoltaic performance and stability. We apply the D–A–π–A concept broadly to the organic sensitizers containing additional electron-withdrawing units between electron donors and acceptors. This review is projected to summarize the category of pure organic sensitizers on the basis of the D–A–π–A feature. By comparing the structure–property relationship of typical photovoltaic D–A–π–A dyes, the important guidelines in the design of such materials are highlighted.

Organic sensitizers from D-π-A to D-A-π-A: effect of the internal electron-withdrawing units on molecular absorption, energy levels and photovoltaic performances.

To dye for: A porphyrin chromophore, which is integrated into a donor-acceptor dye as a π-conjugated bridge (see picture), exhibits an unprecedented efficiency of 11 □ % when used as a photosensitizer in a double-layer TiO2 film. A greatly enhanced photovoltaic performance is observed when the porphyrin dye is cosensitized with a metal-free dye that has a complementary spectral response. © 2010 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

https://ir.nctu.edu.tw:443/bitstream/11536/6020/1/000282477500036.pdf

‡ and Ying-Chan Hsu

Papers

Organic Dyes Incorporating Low-Band-Gap Chromophores for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells