The Effect of the Mixture Composition of BmimBF4-Acetonitrile on the Excited State Relaxation Dynamics of a Solar Cell Dye D149: An Ultrafast Transient Absorption Study

Abstract

It has been recognized that the understanding of the photo physic of the dyes used in solar cells in an important step in improving their efficiency. Certainly using ionic liquid as an electrolyte is a good solution as it stabilizes the excited state of the dye, however, because of the high viscosity, the diffusion of the components of the solar cell (dye, electrolyte, the chosen redox couple) is very low and has consequences on the other processes (Forward and backward processes). One of the ideas, is to modulate the viscosity of the ionic liquid by mixing the ionic liquid with a solvent. The goal then of this work is to quantify the mixture composition dependence of the excited state relaxation times. Other studies should be carried out to quantify the mixture dependence on the time characteristics of other processes (charge injection, collection etc.) to optimize the working optimal conditions of the solar cell. Following this goal, the present study is devoted to characterize the relaxation time of in the whole mixture composition of BmimBF4 and acetonitrile and in the neat components. For the first time, the decay relaxation times of the first excited electronic state of D149 dye, as obtained by transient absorption spectroscopy (TAS). These relaxation times are monitored by a gradual change of the local structure around a dye, from the one dominated by the interionic interactions, high viscosity and low polarity (as quantified by the static dielectric constant) in BmimBF4 to the one that is dominated by dipole-dipole interactions, low viscosity and high polarity in acetonitrile.