A General Strategy to Enhance the Performance of Dye‐Sensitized Solar Cells by Incorporating a Light‐Harvesting Dye with a Hydrophobic Polydiacetylene Electrolyte‐Blocking Layer

Abstract

A unique strategy to suppress charge recombination effectively and enhance light harvesting in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) is demonstrated by the design of a new dipolar organic dye functionalized with a diacetylene unit, which is capable of undergoing a photoinduced crosslinking reaction to generate a hydrophobic polydiacetylene layer. The polydiacetylene layer serves as an electrolyte-blocking layer that effectively blocks the approach of the oxidized redox mediator and suppresses the dark current, and also plays a role in light harvesting owing to efficient energy transfer to the dipolar dyes. A 15 % efficiency improvement was achieved on going from the monomer dye (J =13.5 mA cm , V =0.728 V, fill factor=0.73, η=7.17 %) to the crosslinked dye (J =14.9 mA cm , V =0.750 V, fill factor=0.74, η=8.27 %) under AM 1.5 conditions.

Recent Developments in Polydiacetylene-Based Sensors

“…The fusion of multiple disciplines, such as chemistry, biology, and engineering, has opened new paths for PDAs. PDAs also demonstrated potential applications in numerous fields besides sensing, such as carriers for catalysts, − drugs, − siRNA, cells, and genes , and as components in cell imaging, , tumor targeting, , solar cells, − gas sorption, , organic field effect transistors, , actuators, supercapacitors, and polymer stabilizers, because of their unique structural and physical features. In this review, only the sensing applications of PDAs are discussed.…”

Chemistry on the electrodes: post-functionalization and stability enhancement of anchored dyes on mesoporous metal oxide photoelectrochemical cells with copper-free Huisgen cycloaddition reaction

“…In DSSCs, radical polymerization of dyes bearing vinyl or alkyne groups by UV irradiation proved to be efficient to reduce the desorption kinetic. [17][18][19] In DSPECs, Meyer and co-workers have developed two ingenious procedures, which effectively stabilize the dyes upon desorption. One approach is based on the electro-polymerization of initially immobilized sensitizers (usually ruthenium polypyridine complexes) containing vinyl substituents in presence of a substrate (such as a water oxidation catalyst) also bearing vinyl groups.…”

Structural Engineering of Organic D–A−π–A Dyes Incorporated with a Dibutyl-Fluorene Moiety for High-Performance Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

“…The intensity-modulated photovoltage spectroscopy (IMVS) measurements and charge extraction analysis were conducted to evaluate the recombination rate at the interface and the charge density of the device 57 resulting from the sensitization of GZ and MA dyes. On the basis of the plot of the electron lifetime versus applied photovoltage of devices sensitized by these dyes shown in Figure S3a, MA1116 displayed a longer electron lifetime followed by GZ116 compared to the other three dyes at a given potential, which is consistent with their corresponding V oc values.…”