TY - JOUR
T1 - Theoretical design of triphenylamine-based derivatives with asymmetric D-D-π-A configuration for dye-sensitized solar cells
AU - Balanay, Mannix P.
AU - Enopia, Camille Marie G
AU - Lee, Sang Hee
AU - Kim, Dong Hee
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology ( 2010-0021818 ) and the Supercomputing Center/Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information with supercomputing resources including technical support (2013).
PY - 2015/4/5
Y1 - 2015/4/5
N2 - The use of theoretical techniques in the structural development of dye-sensitized solar cells helps in the efficient screening of the dyes. To properly rationalize the dye's design process, benchmark calculations were conducted using long-range corrected exchange-correlation (xc) functionals with varying separation parameters to be able to predict the excited-state energies of triphenylamine-based dyes, namely: PPS, PSP, and PSS, wherein they differ at the π-conjugated bridge using thiophene and/or phenyl moieties. The results show that LC-ωPBE xc functional with an optimized parameter provided better correlation with the experimental results compared to the other functionals. The relative shifts of the absorption spectra, light harvesting efficiency, normal dipole moments, as well as the ionization potentials and electron affinities of the dyes were well-correlated with the experimental data. A new set of dyes was designed in an effort to increase its solar cell efficiency that was patterned after PSS with an additional donor moiety such as fluorene, cyclopentaindole, and pyrene attached asymmetrically at the triphenylamine ring. Among the newly designed dyes, analogs that contain 4-phenyl-1,2,3,4-tetrahydrocyclopenta[b]indole (I) and pyrido[2,3,4-5-imn]phenanthridine-5,10(4H,9H)-dione (P2) as the additional donor moiety produced the best photophysical properties and charge-transfer characteristics for a promising dye for solar cell applications.
AB - The use of theoretical techniques in the structural development of dye-sensitized solar cells helps in the efficient screening of the dyes. To properly rationalize the dye's design process, benchmark calculations were conducted using long-range corrected exchange-correlation (xc) functionals with varying separation parameters to be able to predict the excited-state energies of triphenylamine-based dyes, namely: PPS, PSP, and PSS, wherein they differ at the π-conjugated bridge using thiophene and/or phenyl moieties. The results show that LC-ωPBE xc functional with an optimized parameter provided better correlation with the experimental results compared to the other functionals. The relative shifts of the absorption spectra, light harvesting efficiency, normal dipole moments, as well as the ionization potentials and electron affinities of the dyes were well-correlated with the experimental data. A new set of dyes was designed in an effort to increase its solar cell efficiency that was patterned after PSS with an additional donor moiety such as fluorene, cyclopentaindole, and pyrene attached asymmetrically at the triphenylamine ring. Among the newly designed dyes, analogs that contain 4-phenyl-1,2,3,4-tetrahydrocyclopenta[b]indole (I) and pyrido[2,3,4-5-imn]phenanthridine-5,10(4H,9H)-dione (P2) as the additional donor moiety produced the best photophysical properties and charge-transfer characteristics for a promising dye for solar cell applications.
KW - Density functional theory
KW - Dye regeneration
KW - Electron injection
KW - Electron lifetime
KW - Long-range corrected functional
KW - Reorganization energy
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U2 - 10.1016/j.saa.2015.01.002
DO - 10.1016/j.saa.2015.01.002
M3 - Article
C2 - 25617849
AN - SCOPUS:84921519766
VL - 140
SP - 382
EP - 391
JO - Spectrochimica Acta - Part A: Molecular and Biomolecular Spectroscopy
JF - Spectrochimica Acta - Part A: Molecular and Biomolecular Spectroscopy
SN - 1386-1425
ER -