Comparative study on photovoltaic properties of imidazole-based dyes containing varying electron acceptors in dye-sensitized solar cells

•Two imidazole-based organic dyes were synthesized and applied in DSSCs.•Effects of different electron acceptors on these organic dyes were studied.•DB-1 with cyanoacetic acid gives effective and faster electron injection.•DB-1 shows the better photovoltaic performance. In this paper, a comparative...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Synthetic metals 2014-10, Vol.196, p.193-198
Main Authors: Wan, Zhongquan, Zhou, Linlei, Jia, Chunyang, Chen, Ximing, Li, Zhijie, Yao, Xiaojun
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
4,5-Diphenyl-1H-imidazole
Applied sciences
Charge
Chemistry
Conversion
Cyanoacetic acid
Dye-sensitized solar cells
Dyes
Electron donor
Energy
Energy levels
Exact sciences and technology
Heterocyclic compounds
Heterocyclic compounds with n hetero atom and also o and/or s, se, te hetero atoms
Molecular orbitals
Natural energy
Organic chemistry
Photovoltaic cells
Photovoltaic conversion
Preparations and properties
Rhodanine-3-acetic acid
Solar cells
Solar cells. Photoelectrochemical cells
Solar energy
Synthetic metals
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:•Two imidazole-based organic dyes were synthesized and applied in DSSCs.•Effects of different electron acceptors on these organic dyes were studied.•DB-1 with cyanoacetic acid gives effective and faster electron injection.•DB-1 shows the better photovoltaic performance. In this paper, a comparative study on the photophysical, electrochemical properties and photovoltaic performances of simple imidazole-based dyes containing varying electron acceptors is done. Two organic dyes containing 4,5-diphenyl-1H-imidazole (DPIM) unit as electron donor and cyanoacetic acid (for DB-1) or rhodanine-3-acetic acid (for DB-2) as electron acceptor are designed and synthesized. The LUMO and HOMO energy levels of the two dyes can be ensuring positive effect on the process of electron injection and dye regeneration. The overall conversion efficiencies of 1.63% and 0.51% were obtained for DSSCs based on DB-1 and DB-2, respectively. In comparison with DB-1, DB-2 shows the lower JSC, VOC, and efficiency, which is attributed to the lower excited electron injection efficiency and faster charge recombination rate.
ISSN:0379-6779
1879-3290
DOI:10.1016/j.synthmet.2014.08.005