Computational Prediction of Electronic and Photovoltaic Properties of Anthracene-Based Organic Dyes for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Abstract

Three kinds of anthracene-based organic dyes for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) were studied, and their structures are based on a push-pull framework with anthracenyl diphenylamine as the donor connected to a carboxyphenyl or carboxyphenylbromothiazole (BTZ) as the acceptor via an acetylene bridge. The photoelectric properties of the three dyes were investigated using density functional theory (DFT). The simulations indicate that the improvement of anthracene-based dyes (the addition of BTZ and the change of alkyl groups to alkoxy chains) can reduce the energy gap and produce a red shift. This structural modification also improves the light capturing and the electron injection capability, making it excellent in photoelectric conversion efficiency (PCE). In addition, twelve molecules have been designed to regulate photovoltaic performance.

DFT and TD-DFT studies for optoelectronic properties of coumarin based donor-π-acceptor (D-π-A) dyes: applications in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCS)

“…All calculations are carried out in gas state and chloroform solvent using the Gaussian 09W software [ 32 ]. GaussView 5.0 [ 33 ] was used to organize the input files and output files results were interpreted and plots of the optical absorption spectra are simulated using Gabedit software [ 34 ].…”

A Theoretical Evaluation of the Efficiencies of Metal-Free 1,3,4-Oxadiazole Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells: Insights from Electron–Hole Separation Distance Analysis

“…As MEP measures the electron densities on atoms in a molecule, it is a good chemical indicator that can distinguish between donor, π-spacer, and acceptor fragments, where the latter contains the highest concentration of electrons amongst the three fragments. [44,47]. (For a detailed discussion of the atom-based electron-hole analysis, see ESI).…”

Characteristics of Low Band Gap Copolymers Containing Anthracene-Benzothiadiazole Dicarboxylic Imide: Synthesis, Optical, Electrochemical, Thermal and Structural Studies

“…For the synthesis of 2,5-dibromothiophene (1), thiophene was selectively brominated at 2,5-positions using two equivalents of N-bromosuccinimide (NBS) in N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) in the dark to give material 1 as a yellow oily product in a high yield [24]. Then, material 1 was nitrated with concentrated nitric acid/sulfuric acid and fuming sulfuric acid to give 2,5-dibromo-3,4-dinitrothiophene (2) [25][26][27]. The compound 2 was then reacted with 2-(tributylstannyl)thiophene in the presence of PdCl 2 (PPh 3 ) 2 as a catalyst in anhydrous toluene at 115 • C to give 3 ,4 -dinitro-2,2 :5 ,2 -terthiophene (3).…”

“…Material 4 was achieved as a brown solid in a good yield of 97% [29]. The resulting substance (4) was then reacted with N-thionyl aniline (PhNSO) and trimethylsilyl chloride (TMSCl) in anhydrous pyridine to afford 4,6-bis(2thienyl)-thieno [3,4-c] [1,2,5]-thiadiazole (5) as blue crystals in a good yield of 93% [30]. The compound 4,7-di(thien-2-yl)-2,1,3-benzothiadiazole-5,6-dimethyl ester (6) was obtained by the Diels-Alder reaction between material 5 and dimethyl acetylenedicarboxylate in anhydrous xylene at reflux.…”

“…Organic solar cells are a promising alternative to traditional inorganic semiconducting materials [ 1 , 2 ]. Efforts have been made to design new materials for application in optoelectronic devices such as field effect transistors (FETs) [ 3 , 4 ], light-emitting diodes [ 5 , 6 ], and photovoltaic cells [ 7 ].…”