A Novel Boron-Dipyrrin Dye for Dye Sensitized Solar Cell Applications

  • Prof Dr Siddik Icli, Solar Energy Institute, Ege University, Turkey
  • Prof Dr Engin Akkaya, Department of Chemistry, Bilkent University, Turkey
  • A/Prof Dr Sule Erten-Ela, Solar Energy Institute, Ege University, Turkey
  • Burcak Icli, Inst. of Chem. Sci.& Eng., Swiss Federal Inst. of Technology (EPFL),, Switzerland
  • Deniz Yilmaz, Department of Chemistry, Middle East Technical University, Turkey

    • Boron-dipyrrin, BDP, derivatives have been synthesized and studied as chemosensors in fluorescence emissions for their resonance energy transfer properties by Akkaya group1,2. We now report a novel boron-dipyrrin derivatives of BDP-phenyl-ethenyl(triphenylamine), BDP-PETA, and BDP-cyanocarboxylethenylphenyl-ethenyl(triphenylamine), BDP-CCPETA, as sensitizers in Graetzel type dye sensitized solar cells-DSSC.3,4 HOMO and LUMO energy levels of BDP-PETA, EHOMO= 5.43 eV, ELUMO= 3.59 eV, indicates that these molecular structures are suitable for efficient photo-electron transfer in DSSC via nanostructured titania thin films. BDP-PETA presented Isc [mA/cm2] = 2.0, Voc [mV] = 500, Efficiency [%] = 0,78, and BDP-CCPETA Isc [mA/cm2] = 4.0, Voc [mV] = 562, Efficiency [%] = 1.66. Cyano carboxyl group appear to improve the efficiency of photo-electron transfer from dye to porous TiO2, by improved surface interactions.

    References:
    1 – A. Coskun, E.U. Akkaya, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 128 (2006) 14474.
    2 – A. Coskun, M. D. Yilmaz, E. U. Akkaya, Organic Letters 9 (2007) 607.
    3 - B. O’Regan, M. Graetzel, Nature, 353 (1991) 737.
    4 - C. Zafer, M. Kus, G. Turkmen, H. Dincalp, S. Demic, B. Kuban, Y. Teoman, S. Icli, Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, 91(2007) 427.