Fabrication of Copper(I) Bipyridyl Complex Based Dye Sensitized Solar Cells

Abstract

This study investigates the performance of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) based on a copper(I) complex. A simple form of copper(I) complex dye was synthesized with a structure of [Cu(L)(CH3CN)], where L is the 6,6′-dimethyl-4,4′-bis(phenylethynyl)-2,2′-bipyridine ligand. The full structure of DSSC investigated in this study is as follows: FTO/TiO2/dye Cu(I) bipyridyl/3I−/I3− electrolyte/graphite/FTO. The TiO2 photoanodes were deposited from apoly(vinylpyrrolidone)-based paste using a spin coating technique. Different conditions of fabrication, such as paste dispersion time and total TiO2 thickness, were systematically studied in order to optimize the performance of the DSSC. The trigonal planar complex [Cu(L)CH3CN] was revealed to be suitable for applications in DSSC. The highest exhibited short circuit current density was found to be 0.48 mA/cm2, with an open voltage of 477 mV, a form factor of 34% and a power conversion efficiency of 0.08% for the cell with photoanodes thickness of about 2.2 μm. It was shown that the dye and the paste formulation had great potential for applications in DSSC.