Ferrocenyl‐2‐pyridylimine derived d¹⁰‐configuration complexes as prospective co‐sensitizers in dye sensitized solar cells

Abstract

Three complexes comprising ferrocenyl‐2‐pyridylimine and three d10 transition metal centers viz. Zn (II), Cd (II), and Hg (II) having formula [M (FcCH=NCH2(2‐py)] (M = Zn (II) (Zn‐Fc), Cd (II) (Cd‐Fc), and Hg (II) (Hg‐Fc); Fc = Ferrocene) are synthesized and their characterization have been done using microanalytical technique, FT‐IR and NMR spectroscopic methods. The optimized molecular geometries for all the three ferrocene‐based complexes revealed that the coordination geometries around the d10‐metal centers are distorted tetrahedral. The application of these complexes as sensitizers and co‐sensitizers/co‐adsorbents have been assessed in dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Amid the three co‐sensitizers/co‐adsorbent based the DSSC set‐ups, the assembly fabricated using Zn‐Fc/N719 displayed superior performance with 5.71 ± 0.04% efficiency (η) indicating enhancement in the DSSC performance than to the set‐up constructed using solely N719 (η = 4.20 ± 0.05%).

Copper(ii) and cobalt(iii) Schiff base complexes with hydroxy anchors as sensitizers in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs)

“…Table 1 presents DSSC performances of previously reported analogous sensitizers comprising. [52][53][54][55] The photovoltaic data suggested that performance of sensitizers investigated in presented study are comparable to the reported analogous sensitizers. However, the cell performance of the sensitizers are relatively inferior to that of the state of the art N719 dye, 52 which partly may be attributed to the relatively poor spectral response and inferior photo-electron transfer.…”

“…[52][53][54][55] The photovoltaic data suggested that performance of sensitizers investigated in presented study are comparable to the reported analogous sensitizers. However, the cell performance of the sensitizers are relatively inferior to that of the state of the art N719 dye, 52 which partly may be attributed to the relatively poor spectral response and inferior photo-electron transfer. However, as compared to the Ru(II)-based N719 sensitizers the sensitizers investigated herein are easy to synthesize and cost effective.…”

“…Also, in the fingerprint plots 50–52 the complementary regions are shown, where one molecule acts as donor ( d e > d i ) and the other as acceptor ( d e < d i ) and have been decomposed to highlight particular atom-pair close contacts. In Cu-Sal , the O–H⋯O and C–H⋯π intermolecular interactions display distinct paired spike feature in their respective decomposed 2D fingerprint plots.…”

Metal and nitrogen co‐doped carbon dots in the sensitized solar cells

“…The need for attention about the future global energy production is pointing to the need to harvest the energy of sunlight by improving photovoltaic technology. [1,2] Solar cells transform sunlight into electricity. The photochemical reactions and charge transfer processes are two essential components of energy production using solar cells.…”

A double co-sensitization strategy using heteroleptic transition metal ferrocenyl dithiocarbamate phenanthrolene-dione for enhancing the performance of N719-based DSSCs

“…Apart from these reports, the ferrocene-based complexes have been utilized as co-sensitizers to enhance the DSSC performance of the state-of-the-art N719 dyes. 36 These investigations laid a firm platform to utilise ferrocene-based derivatives as co-sensitizers in DSSCs. The 1,10-phenanthrolene-5,6-dione ligand-based complexes display the potential to exhibit higher stability and have the capability to allow control over redox tenability and also these can engender suitable metalloligands for the generation of functionalized coordination complexes that could be utilized as sensitizers and co-sensitizers in DSSCs.…”