Improving energy transfer efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cell by fine tuning of dye planarity

Some of the highlights of the research were that it was noted that when slight modifications were applied to pull and push units there were noticed remarkable differences in the performance of devices associated with them. It was also noticed that there were remarkable differences between the established dye planarity and the photovoltaic performance of the devices which have a DSC. Devices that are based on SK202 achieved efficiencies that were deemed to be excellent and rated over 10 percent when two different redox couples were seen to be at play. When metal free sensitizers which were push pull and having the compounds carbazole and its derivatives were used they were found to be electron donating groups while when benzoic acid was used it was found to be an electron withdrawing unit. These two differences were denoted by SK201 and SK202 and they were sensitized and actually used for the manufacture of dyes that were sensitive to solar cells. The SK202 compound has an intermediary between the donor and the acceptor and that intermediary is a thienyl group. In SK201, the donor and acceptor have no intermediary rather they are directly connected together using a single bond.

Key Takeaways:

Metal-free sensitizers which are push pull sensitizers and made of benzoic acids were used as units for withdrawing electrons and for manufacture of dye-sensitized solar cells.
There are two groups of sensitizers, the SK201 and SK 202 groups. The SK202 group has an intermediary active compound while the SK201 does not have.
There were several advantages of introducing a dye sensitive dienyl compound in the SK202 group which includes increasing its planarity and enhancing its molar coefficient.

“Slight modification between push and pull units produced remarkable differences in device performance.”