High-efficiency dye-sensitized solar cells with molecular copper phenanthroline as solid hole conductor

Abstract

Copper phenanthroline is an efficient molecular hole transporting material for solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells. Efficiencies of more than 8% at 1 sun were obtained using LEG4 organic dye.

Copper Bipyridyl Redox Mediators for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells with High Photovoltage

“…The synthesis of copper complexes was performed as previously reported. 28 For (Cu-(dmp) 2 TFSI) ( Figure S1), 1 equiv of CuI was mixed with 4 equiv of neocuproine hydrate in ethanol, under nitrogen atmosphere, at room temperature for 2 h. The stirred solution was filtered and washed with water and diethyl ether. The resulting complex was collected as an intense red crystalline powder.…”

Dye-sensitized solar cells for efficient power generation under ambient lighting

“…The bis(2,9-dimethyl-1,10-phenanthroline) copper-based DSCs were further improved by Wang and co-workers by combining them with an organic sensitizer, which led to an increase in the power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) from 7.0% at 100 mW cm -2 to 8.3% at ∼23 mW cm -2 air mass 1.5 global (AM 1.5G) light 25 . With further improvements of the DSCs and the introduction of new copper-based redox shuttles, Freitag and co-workers recently surpassed the 10.0% efficiency mark at 100 mW cm -2 AM 1.5G light for this family of alternative redox mediators [26][27][28] . Herein, for the first time, we introduce a DSC design that outperforms other photovoltaic technologies, including GaAs thin-film solar cells 29 , in terms of efficiency and cost under ambient light conditions.…”

Efficiency enhancement in solid state dye sensitized solar cells by including inverse opals with controlled layer thicknesses

“…For instance, optimization of the dye structure employed and suitable doping of SpiroOMeTAD led to energy conversion efficiencies over 7% [21,22]. Moreover, new hole transporters [22] or photoanode designs [23] have recently led to PCEs reaching up 8.2-8.4%. However, these devices often require the use of thin film photoanodes to allow a good penetration of the HTM within the porosity of the semiconducting oxide layer which strongly affect their solar light harvesting ability.…”

“…To circumvent this drawback, all solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells (ssDSCs) have been designed by hole transport materials (HTM) [16][17][18][19] as Spiro-OMeTAD or p-type inorganic semiconductor [20]. For instance, optimization of the dye structure employed and suitable doping of SpiroOMeTAD led to energy conversion efficiencies over 7% [21,22]. Moreover, new hole transporters [22] or photoanode designs [23] have recently led to PCEs reaching up 8.2-8.4%.…”