A combination of fluorine-induced effect and co-sensitization for highly efficient and stable dye-sensitized solar cells

Shengbo Zhu; Wei Li; Bingyang Lu; Ran Chen; Yongliang Liu; Weixing Chen; Xiaoling Niu; Wenzhi Zhang; Xinbing Chen; Zhongwei An

doi:10.1063/5.0158154

A combination of fluorine-induced effect and co-sensitization for highly efficient and stable dye-sensitized solar cells

J Chem Phys. 2023 Aug 28;159(8):084704. doi: 10.1063/5.0158154.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Photoelectric Functional Materials and Devices, Engineering Research Center of Light Stabilizers for Polymer Materials, Universities of Shaanxi Province, School of Materials and Chemical Engineering, Xi'an Technological University, Xi'an 710021, China.
² School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an 710062, China.

PMID: 37610018
DOI: 10.1063/5.0158154

Abstract

Developing dyes with high open-circuit photovoltage (Voc) is a vital strategy to improve the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of co-sensitized solar cells (co-DSSCs). Herein, three organic fluorine-containing dyes [YY-ThP(3F), YY-ThP(2F), and YY-ThP(26F)] are designed and synthesized for investigating the fluorine-induced effect on photophysical and photovoltaic performances. Consequently, this effect can significantly broaden the UV-vis absorption spectra of dyes but fail to improve the light-harvesting capability of DSSCs. Strikingly, YY-ThP(3F), featuring 3-position fluorine substitution to cyanoacrylic acid, yields a relatively high Voc compared to the corresponding fluorine-free dye (YY-ThP). Furthermore, the co-sensitization of YY-ThP+YY-ThP(3F) achieves a remarkably high PCE and long-term stability. This work implies that the combination of judicious molecular engineering and co-sensitization is a promising strategy for highly efficient and stable DSSCs.