Ethynyl thiophene-appended unsymmetrical zinc porphyrin sensitizers for dye-sensitized solar cells

Reeta, P. Silviya; Giribabu, Lingamallu; Senthilarasu, Sundaram; Hsu, Min-Hung; Kumar, D. Kishore; Upadhyaya, Hari M.; Robertson, Neil; Hewat, Tracy

Abstract

Four unsymmetrical porphyrins of A2B donor–π–acceptor type have been designed, synthesized, characterized and their photovoltaic properties explored. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), such as pyrene or fluorene, act as a donor, the porphyrin is the π-spacer, appended with an ethynyl thiophene linker, and either cyanoacrylic acid or malonic acid acts as the acceptor. All of the compounds were characterized by 1H NMR and mass spectrometry. UV-Vis absorption spectra and B or Soret (λex at 440 nm for the four sensitizers reported) band-excited fluorescence emission spectra were also obtained. The electrochemical properties suggest that the first oxidation is ring-centred, which is supported by in situ spectro-electrochemical and DFT computational studies. The synthesized porphyrins were applied in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). A conversion efficiency of up to 3.14%was realized for PYR–Por–MA under our experimental conditions.

Citation

Reeta, P. S., Giribabu, L., Senthilarasu, S., Hsu, M., Kumar, D. K., Upadhyaya, H. M., …Hewat, T. (2014). Ethynyl thiophene-appended unsymmetrical zinc porphyrin sensitizers for dye-sensitized solar cells. RSC Advances, 4(27), 14165-14175. https://doi.org/10.1039/C3RA47948J

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 27, 2014
• Online Publication Date: Jan 30, 2014
• Publication Date: 2014
• Deposit Date: Mar 14, 2023
• Print ISSN: 2046-2069
• Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 4
• Issue: 27
• Pages: 14165-14175
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/C3RA47948J