Abstract
Coplanar metal-free organic dyes featuring a furylethynyl spacer with different donor residues (MeO-, MeS-, and Me2N-) have been synthesized. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations predicted that the Me2N- residue would facilitate more effective charge transfer from donor to acceptor than the MeO- and MeS- residues. In agreement with DFT calculations, the dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) fabricated with the Me2N- functionalized dye exhibited the best power conversion efficiency (η), 2.88%. Furthermore, the effect of the furan spacer on the photophysical properties and DSSC parameters are discussed in comparison to a previously reported thiophene counterpart.
Highlights
Incoming solar irradiation possesses a huge amount of energy and as a consequence, photovoltaic (PV) devices have been extensively developed to meet our ongoing demand for clean energy.Among next-generation PV devices, dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) have been extensively explored because of their tunable color/transparency and good performance under low light and variable solar incident angles [1,2]
We report the synthesis of three metal-free organic compounds featuring a furylethynyl featuring a furylethynyl spacer and their optical and electrochemical properties, which have been spacer and their optical and electrochemical properties, which have been compared to their compared to their
The electrochemical properties dyes explored using cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electron affinities (EA) obtained from the square wave voltammetry (SWV) measurements are provided in Table 1 [12]
Summary
Incoming solar irradiation possesses a huge amount of energy and as a consequence, photovoltaic (PV) devices have been extensively developed to meet our ongoing demand for clean energy. Metal-free organic photosensitizers have embraced a donor-π bridge-acceptor (D-π-A) structure, which promotes intramolecular charge separation and effective injection of excited electrons to the conduction band of the semiconductor. They have notable advantages, such as high molar extinction coefficients, rich synthetic protocols, and cost-effective mass production. Various π-conjugation segments have been tested to modulate the photophysical properties of the metal-free D-π-A Chalcogenophene units, such as furan, thiophene, and selenophene, have been employed as stable and efficient heterocycle units because of effective π-conjugation, low resonance stabilization energy, and a bathochromic shift in light absorption [6,7,8].
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