Iglesias D, Atienzar P, Vázquez E, Herrero MA, García H. Carbon Nanohorns Modified with Conjugated Terthienyl/Terthiophene Structures: Additives to Enhance the Performance of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells.
NANOMATERIALS (BASEL, SWITZERLAND) 2017;
7:E294. [PMID:
28946677 PMCID:
PMC5666459 DOI:
10.3390/nano7100294]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/31/2017] [Revised: 09/15/2017] [Accepted: 09/19/2017] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
A series of carbon nanohorns (CNHs) constituted by the aggregation of about 2000 individual conical graphene tubes (diameters from 2 nm to 5 nm and a length of 40-50 nm) that have been modified with dyes of two, three, or four terthienyl groups has been prepared by adsorbing the corresponding dye on the CNH. Persistent inks in o-dichlorobenzene (o-DCB) of these dye-CNH conjugates were obtained by laser irradiation of o-DCB suspensions of the dye-CNH solids. These inks were used in combination or not with N719 dye for the preparation of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) of TiO₂. It was measured that the terthienyl dye with the largest conjugation deposited on the CNH additively increased the performance of an analogous TiO₂ cell from an efficiency of 4.07% to 6.24%. This result shows the potential of dye-modified CNHs as additives in the construction of more efficient DSSCs.
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