Issue 35, 2016

Synthesis of organic photosensitizers containing dithienogermole and thiadiazolo[3,4-c]pyridine units for dye-sensitized solar cells

Abstract

Dithienogermole (DTG) is a germanium-bridged bithiophene system that has been applied as a building unit of conjugated materials for organic electronic devices, including organic photovoltaics and organic light emitting diodes. However, DTG has not been used as a component of sensitizers for dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). In this work, we have synthesized three D–π-A–π-A type sensitizers containing DTG and thiadiazolo[3,4-c]pyridine (PTz). We expected that combining DTG and a strong acceptor PTz would give rise to a strong absorption in the visible region. In addition, we introduced bulky 2-ethylhexyl groups on the germanium atom to prevent dye aggregation on TiO2 films. Three DTG-containing dyes with different anchor units were synthesized and their optical/electrochemical properties were investigated. The DTG-containing dyes exhibited broad and strong absorption bands around 600 nm on TiO2. We fabricated DSSCs based on the DTG-containing dyes. The onsets of incident photon to current conversion efficiency (IPCE) spectra reached 900 nm and a maximal power conversion efficiency of 2.76% was achieved.

Graphical abstract: Synthesis of organic photosensitizers containing dithienogermole and thiadiazolo[3,4-c]pyridine units for dye-sensitized solar cells

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
20 Jun 2016
Accepted
27 Jul 2016
First published
28 Jul 2016
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Dalton Trans., 2016,45, 13817-13826

Synthesis of organic photosensitizers containing dithienogermole and thiadiazolo[3,4-c]pyridine units for dye-sensitized solar cells

Y. Adachi, Y. Ooyama, N. Shibayama and J. Ohshita, Dalton Trans., 2016, 45, 13817 DOI: 10.1039/C6DT02469F

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