Structure and energy level alignment at the dye–electrode interface in p-type DSSCs: new hints on the role of anchoring modes from ab initio calculations

Abstract

p-type dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) represent the complementary photocathodes to the well-studied n-type DSSCs (Grätzel cells), but their low performances have hindered the development of convenient tandem solar cells based on cost-effective n- and p-type DSSCs. Because of their low efficiencies, experimental investigations highlighted the role of hole–electron transport processes at the dye–electrode interface. However, the effects of the dye anchoring groups on interfacial electronic features are still unclear. We report here a first principles study of a benchmark p-type DSSC model, namely the widely used Coumarin-based dye C343 adsorbed on the p-NiO surface. Together with the original carboxylic acid, we test the alternative phosphonic acid as the anchoring group. We investigate binding energies, structural features and electronic energy level alignments: our results highlight that these properties are highly sensitive to the binding modes. In particular, both the chemical nature of the anchoring group and the binding mode strongly affect the thermodynamic driving force for the dye–electrode hole injection process. From analysis of the electronic densities, we find that favorable driving forces are correlated with small values of the interfacial electrostatic dipole that is formed upon dye adsorption. From our results, we derive new hints for improving open circuit potential and the hole injection process in p-type DSSCs based on NiO electrodes.