Novel D–π–A dye sensitizers of polymeric metal complexes with triphenylamine or carbazole derivatives as donor for dye-sensitized solar cells: synthesis, characterization and application

Abstract

In this paper, four novel D–π–A polymeric metal complexes as dye sensitizers for dye-sensitized solar cell, which have triphenylamine or carbazole derivative used as an electron donor (D), C=C bond used as π-bridge (π), and transition metal complexes used as an electron acceptor (A), were synthesized and characterized. They have been determined and studied by FT-IR, thermogravimetric analyses, differential scanning calorimetry, gel permeation chromatography, elemental analysis, UV–Vis absorption spectroscopy, photoluminescence spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry, J–V curves and photon-to-electron conversion efficiency plots. Polymeric metal complexes which have carbazole derivatives used as an electron donor (D) and cadmium used as coordination metal ion exhibited better power conversion efficiency (η) than the other polymeric metal complexes. The dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) fabricated by PBL1 exhibit good device performance with a power conversion efficiency of up to 1.76 % (J sc = 4.74 mA/cm2, V oc = 0.63 mV) under simulated AM 1.5 G irradiation indicating that the polymeric metal complexes are promising in the development of DSSC.