Organic Sensitizers Featuring 9,10-Diaryl-Substituted Anthracene Unit

Abstract

A series of anthracene-based dyes were designed and employed in dye-sensitized solar cells in which different 9,10-diaryl-substituted anthracene groups acted as a π-bridge with 2,6-linkage mode. The tert-butylphenyl and hexyloxyphenyl groups in the 9 and 10 positions of the anthracene unit were almost perpendicular to the conjugated plane, which would be beneficial to suppressing the possible π−π stacking and retarding the charge recombination. Their photophysical properties and photovoltaic performance could be tuned by the modification of the substituted groups to the anthracene ring in some degree. Consequently, dye LI-59-based solar cells gave the best performance, with a J sc (short circuit current) of 13.42 mA cm −2 , V oc (open circuit voltage) of 722 mV, and FF (fill factor) of 0.66, corresponding to an overall conversion efficiency of 6.42% without the presence of CDCA.

Triple bond-modified anthracene sensitizers for dye-sensitized solar cells: a computational study

“…Heo et al 25 reported the synthesis of various anthracene mediated p-conjugated dyes incorporating triple-bond and thiophene moieties for netuning molecular conguration and for broadening the absorption spectrum. Li et al 28 reported a series of organic sensitizers featuring a 9,10-diaryl-substituted anthracene unit that facilitated the construction of high conversion efficiency solar cells. However, all of the reported 9,10-anthracene-based sensitizers suffered severe steric congestion between the anthracene core and the substituent aromatic rings.…”

Sensitizers with rigidified-aromatics as the conjugated spacers for dye-sensitized solar cells

“…The choice of 2,6 linkage over 9,10 linkage mode was mainly because of two reasons: (1) the rigid segment has less reorganization energy and may facilitate electron transfer; (2) rigid segments with a planar skeleton may reduce steric congestion and allow more compact dye packing on the TiO 2 . Very recently, the same concept was explored by Li et al, 23 These results show the promising design approach of that oligo-conjugated or oligo-aromatic entity is promising as a π-bridging unit of metal free D-π-A sensitizers for DSSCs. Later, we found that the cell efficiency could be greatly improved up to 7.5% if the 2-anthracenyl entity used as the peripheral substituent of the arylamine was replaced with a 2-substituted 9,10-bishexyloxyanthracene entity, 12-15 (Fig.…”

Sustainable Nanotechnology

“…Where present, tert-butylphenyl and hexyloxyphenyl groups in the 9 and 10 positions of the anthracene unit occupied practically perpendicular orientations in respect to the conjugated ring-plane, so helping to discourage possible π -π stacking and reducing the extent of charge recombination. When an optimum arrangement of substitutents was present at the anthracene ring, a J sc (short circuit current) of 13.42 mA cm -2 , V oc (open circuit voltage) of 722 mV, and an FF (fill factor) of 0.66, corresponding to an overall conversion efficiency of 6.42%, were obtained 32 .…”