Department of Chemistry and Biology, Ryerson University, 350 Victoria St, Toronto, ON M5B 2K3, Canada.
Molecules. 2020 May 11;25(9):2260. doi: 10.3390/molecules25092260.
A bio-inspired family of organic dyes with bichromic-bipodal architectures were synthesized and tested in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC). These dyes are comprised of a D-π-D-A motif with two triphenylamine (TPA) units acting as donors (D) and two cyanoacetic acid acceptors (A) capable of binding to a titania semiconductor. The role of the thiophene π-spacer bridging the two TPA units was examined and the distal TPA (relative to TiO) was modified with various substituents (-H, -OMe, -SMe, -OHex, -3-thienyl) and contrasted against benchmark . It was found that the two TPA donor units could be tuned independently, where π-spacers can tune the proximal TPA and R-substituents can tune the distal TPA. The highest performing DSSCs were those with -SMe, 3-thienyl, and -H substituents, and those with one spacer or no spacers. The donating abilities of R-substituents was important, but their interactions with the electrolyte was more significant in producing high performing DSSCs. The introduction of one π-spacer provided favourable electronic communication within the dye, but more than one was not advantageous.
合成了具有双chromic-bipodal 结构的仿生有机染料家族，并在染料敏化太阳能电池 (DSSC) 中进行了测试。这些染料由 D-π-D-A 基元组成，其中两个三苯胺 (TPA) 单元作为供体 (D)，两个氰基乙酸受体 (A) 能够与二氧化钛半导体结合。研究了噻吩 π-间隔桥桥接两个 TPA 单元的作用，并对远端 TPA（相对于 TiO）进行了各种取代基（-H、-OMe、-SMe、-OHex、-3-噻吩基）的修饰，并与基准 进行了对比。结果发现，两个 TPA 供体单元可以独立调谐，其中 π-间隔物可以调谐近端 TPA，而 R-取代基可以调谐远端 TPA。性能最高的 DSSC 是那些带有-SMe、3-噻吩基和-H 取代基的 DSSC，以及那些带有一个间隔物或没有间隔物的 DSSC。R-取代基的供电子能力很重要，但它们与电解质的相互作用在产生高性能 DSSC 方面更为重要。引入一个 π-间隔物可以在染料内提供有利的电子通信，但超过一个则没有优势。
