Enhanced light-harvesting efficiency by Förster resonance energy transfer in quasi-solid state DSSC using organic blue dye

Molecular engineering on tyrian puprle natural dye as TiO2 based fined tuned photovoltaic dye material: DFT molecular analysis

In this research, molecular modification is employed to see the enhancement in the efficiency of Tyrian Purple (TP), a natural dye, for organic photovoltaic materials. By using Density Functional Theory (DFT) based molecular modeling, seven new structures are designed with pi spacer to extend electron donor moieties. Teheir Frontier Molecular Orbital (FMO) analysis demonstartes their charges with a similar pattern of distributions over their Highest Occupied and Lowed Unocuupied Molecular Orbitals (HOMO/lUMO). This analysls also show their energy gaps (Egaps) to range around 2.97-3.02 eV. Their maximum absorption wavelength (λmax) demosntartes 486-490 nm range to indicate their tendency of absorbing light efficiently. Their Transition Density Matrix (TDM) analysis also reveals their facile electronic transitions without a significant charges over spacers. From calculating their photovoltaic paramters, their Light Harvesting Efficiency (LHE) reaches to 72.4-95.5 %. Also their Open Circuit Voltage (Voc) varies across 1.16-1.34 V. It is found that dyes actively adsorb onto TiO2 clusters to demonstrate their promise for tuning their Conduction Band (CB). This research is an effort for to evaluate the structural correlations to the develop photovoltaic materials through molecular-level design and optimization.

Rotational Isomerism of an Amide Substituted Squaraine Dye: A Combined Spectroscopic and Computational Study

The conformational analysis of a 2,4-bis(4-dialkylamino-2-amido)phenyl squaraine dye revealed the presence of two rotational isomers at room temperature. Combination of spectroscopic and computational techniques showed that the rotational barrier is influenced by hydrogen bonds between the amido substituents and the oxygen atoms at the quadratic core. Even small amounts of trifluoroacetic acid interfered with the intramolecular hydrogen bond formation and accelerated the interconversion of the conformers.

Helicity Control in the Aggregation of Achiral Squaraine Dyes in Solution and Thin Films

Squaraine dyes are well known for their strong absorption in the visible regime. Reports on chiral squaraine dyes are, however, scarce. To address this gap, we here report two novel chiral squaraine dyes and their achiral counterparts. The presented dyes are aggregated in solution and in thin films. A detailed chiroptical study shows that thin films formed by co-assembling the chiral dye with its achiral counterpart exhibit exceptional photophysical properties. The circular dichroism (CD) of the co-assembled structures reaches a maximum when just 25 % of the chiral dye are present in the mixture. The solid structures with the highest relative CD effect are achieved when the chiral dye is used solely as a director, rather than the structural component. The chiroptical data are further supported by selected spin-filtering measurements using mc-AFM. These findings provide a promising platform for investigating the relationship between the dissymmetry of a supramolecular structure and emerging material properties rather than a comparison between a chiral molecular structure and an achiral counterpart.

Novel energy relay dyes for high efficiency dye-sensitized solar cells

4',6-Diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) and Hoechst 33342 (H33342) were used as novel energy relay dyes (ERDs) for an efficient energy transfer to the N719 dye in I(-)/I3(-) based liquid-junction dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The introduction of the ERDs, either as an additive in the electrolyte or as a co-adsorbent, greatly enhanced the power conversion efficiencies (PCEs), mainly because of an increase in short-circuit current density (Jsc). This was attributed to the effects of non-radiative Förster-type excitation energy transfer as well as the radiative (emission)-type fluorescent energy transfer to the sensitizers. The net PCEs for the N719-sensitized DSSCs with DAPI and H33342 were 10.65% and 10.57%, and showed an improvement of 12.2% and 11.4% over control devices, respectively.

Double dye cubic-sensitized solar cell based on Förster resonant energy transfer

To extend the spectral response range of dye-sensitized solar cells through Förster resonant energy transfer, eosin Y and rhodamine B were chosen as an donor and a acceptor to cubic-sensitize nanocrystalline ZnO thin film.

Multifunctional interface modification of energy relay dye in quasi-solid dye-sensitized solar cells

In this paper, 4-(dicyanomethylene)-2-t-butyl-6(1,1,7,7-tetramethyljulolidyl-9-enyl)-4H-pyran (DCJTB) has been used in interface modification of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) with combined effects of retarding charge recombination and Förster resonant energy transfer (FRET). DCJTB interface modification significantly improved photovoltaic performance of DSCs. I–V curves shows the conversion efficiency increases from 4.27% to 5.64% with DCJTB coating. The application of DCJTB with combined effects is beneficial to explore more novel multi-functional interface modification materials to improve the performance of DSCs.

Novel carbazole-phenothiazine dyads for dye-sensitized solar cells: a combined experimental and theoretical study

We report a joint experimental and computational work on new organic donor-acceptor dye sensitizers in which a carbazole (CZ) and a phenothiazine (PTZ) units are linked together by an alkyl C6H13, while two different anchoring groups are employed: the cyanoacrylic acid (CS1A, CSORG1) and the rhodanine-3-acetic acid (CS4A, CSORG4). The CZ moiety has multiple roles of (i) acting as an extra-electron donor portion, providing more electron density on the PTZ; (ii) suppressing the back-electron transfer from TiO2 to the electrolyte by forming a compact insulating dye layer; (iii) modulating dye aggregation on the semiconductor surface; and (iv) acting as an antenna, collecting photons and, through long-range energy transfer, redirecting the captured energy to the dye sensitizer. We show that the introduction of the CZ donor remarkably enhances the photovoltaic performances of the rhodanine-based dye, compared to the corresponding simple PTZ dye, with more than a two-fold increase in the overall efficiencies, while it does not bring beneficial effects in the case of the cyanoacrylic-based sensitizer. Based on quantum mechanical calculations and experimental measurements, we show that, in addition to a favored long-range energy transfer, which increases the light absorption in the blue region of the spectrum, the presence of the CZ unit in the CSORG4 dye effectively induces a beneficial aggregation pattern on the semiconductor surface, yielding a broadened and red-shifted light absorption, accounting for the two-fold increase in the generated photocurrent.

First-Principles Computational Modeling of Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer in Co-Sensitized Dye Solar Cells

TiO2 cosensitization by different dyes having complementary absorption represents an appealing strategy to obtain panchromatic sensitization in dye-sensitized solar cells. Fluorescence (Föster) resonance energy transfer (FRET) from an energy relay dye to a sensitizing dye, both grafted onto TiO2, was effectively shown to produce additional photocurrent (Hardin et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc.2011, 133, 10662). Here we develop a realistic cosensitization model to provide a precise estimate of the geometrical parameters, which govern the FRET rate. The reliability of our model is fully confirmed by the quantitative reproduction of the experimental spectral shift in the naphtalocyanine absorption band and by the excellent agreement between the experimentally reported FRET rates. Our model provides a realistic picture of the cosensitized TiO2 interface and is capable, at the same time, of predicting the cosensitization mechanism and the associated FRET kinetics based on the sole photophysical characterization of the isolated donor/acceptor partners.