Abstract
Investigation of charge transfer dynamics in dye‐sensitized solar cells is of fundamental interest and the control of these dynamics is a key factor for developing more efficient solar cell devices. One possibility for attenuating losses through recombination between injected electrons and oxidized dye molecules is to move the positive charge further away from the metal oxide surface. For this purpose, a metal‐free dye named E6 is developed, in which the chromophore core is tethered to two external triphenylamine (TPA) units. After photoinduced electron injection into TiO2, the remaining hole is rapidly transferred to a peripheral TPA unit. Electron–hole recombination is slowed down by 30% compared to a reference dye without peripheral TPA units. Furthermore, it is found that the added TPA moieties improve the electron blocking effect of the dye, retarding recombination of electrons from TiO2 to the cobalt‐based electrolyte.
Highlights
Investigation of charge transfer dynamics in dye-sensitized solar cells is of fundamental interest and the control of these dynamics is a key factor for developing more efficient solar cell devices
After photoinduced electron injection into TiO2, the remaining hole is rapidly transferred to a peripheral TPA unit
The geometries were optimized using the hybrid density functional theory (DFT) functional B3LYP using the 6–31G(d) basis as implemented in Gaussian 09.[17]. A single point calculation applying a polarizable continuum model (PCM) with acetonitrile as the model solvent was performed on the optimized structure at the B3LYP/6–311+G(d,p) level of theory
Summary
The synthesis of E6 is illustrated in Figures 2 and 3. The synthesis of D49 is shown in Figure 4, which is essentially identical to that used to synthesize D35.[16]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
