Panchromatic light harvesting and record power conversion efficiency for carboxylic/cyanoacrylic Fe(ii) NHC co-sensitized FeSSCs

Anil Reddy-Marri; Edoardo Marchini; Valentin Diez Cabanes; Roberto Argazzi; Mariachiara Pastore; Stefano Caramori; Philippe C Gros

doi:10.1039/d2sc05971a

Panchromatic light harvesting and record power conversion efficiency for carboxylic/cyanoacrylic Fe(ii) NHC co-sensitized FeSSCs

Chem Sci. 2023 Mar 24;14(16):4288-4301. doi: 10.1039/d2sc05971a. eCollection 2023 Apr 26.

Authors

Anil Reddy-Marri¹, Edoardo Marchini², Valentin Diez Cabanes³, Roberto Argazzi⁴, Mariachiara Pastore³, Stefano Caramori², Philippe C Gros⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, North Carolina State University 851 Main Campus Drive Raleigh North Carolina 27695-8204 USA.
² Department of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Ferrara Via L. Borsari 46 44121 Ferrara Italy cte@unife.it.
³ Université de Lorraine, CNRS, LPCT F-54000 Nancy France mariachiara.pastore@univ-lorraine.fr.
⁴ CNR-ISOF c/o Department of Chemical, Pharmaceutical and Agricultural Sciences, University of Ferrara Via L. Borsari 46 44121 Ferrara Italy.
⁵ Université de Lorraine, CNRS, L2CM F-54000 Nancy France philippe.gros@univ-lorraine.fr.

Abstract

Fe(ii) pyridyl-NHC sensitizers bearing thienylcyanoacrylic (ThCA) anchoring groups have been designed and characterized with the aim of enhancing the metal to surface charge separation and the light harvesting window in iron-sensitized DSSCs (FeSSCs). In these new Fe(ii) dyes, the introduction of the ThCA moiety remarkably extended the spectral response and the photocurrent, in comparison with their carboxylic analogues. The co-sensitization based on a mixture of a carboxylic and a ThCA-iron complex produced a panchromatic absorption, up to 800 nm and the best photocurrent and efficiency (J _sc: 9 mA cm^-2 and PCE: 2%) ever reported for an FeSSC.