Fuguo Zhang

Structure Engineering of Hole–Conductor Free Perovskite-Based Solar Cells with Low-Temperature-Processed Commercial Carbon Paste As Cathode

Low-temperature-processed (100 °C) carbon paste was developed as counter electrode material in hole-conductor free perovskite/TiO2 heterojunction solar cells to substitute noble metallic materials. Under optimized conditions, an impressive PCE value of 8.31% has been achieved with this carbon counter electrode fabricated by doctor-blading technique. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy demonstrates good charge transport characteristics of low-temperature-processed carbon counter electrode. Moreover, this carbon counter electrode-based perovskite solar cell exhibits good stability over 800 h.

Co-sensitization of organic dyes for efficient dye-sensitized solar cells.

Novel cyanine dyes, in which a tetrahydroquinoline derivative is used as an electron donor and 1-butyl-5-carboxy-3, 3-dimethyl-indol-1-ium moiety is used as an electron acceptor and anchoring group, were designed and synthesized for application in dye-sensitized solar cells. The photovoltaic performance of these solar cells depends markedly on the molecular structure of the dyes in terms of the n-hexyl chains and the methoxyl unit. Retardation of charge recombination caused by the introduction of n-hexyl chains resulted in an increase in electron lifetime. As a consequence, an improvement of open-circuit photovoltage (V(oc)) was achieved. Also, the electron injection efficiencies were improved by the introduction of methoxyl moiety, which led to a higher short-circuit photocurrent density (J(sc)). The highest average efficiency of the sensitized devices (η) was 5.6% (J(sc)=13.3 mA cm(-2), V(oc)=606 mV, and fill factor FF=69.1%) under 100 mW cm(-2) (AM 1.5G) solar irradiation. All of these dyes have very high absorption extinction coefficients and strong absorption in a relatively narrow spectrum range (500-650 nm), so one of our organic dyes was explored as a sensitizer in co-sensitized solar cells in combination with the other two other existing organic dyes. Interestingly, a considerably improved photovoltaic performance of 8.2% (J(sc)=20.1 mA cm(-2), V(oc)=597 mV, and FF=68.3%) was achieved and the device showed a panchromatic response with a high incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency exceeding 85% in the range of 400-700 nm.

Degradation of Cyanoacrylic Acid‐Based Organic Sensitizers in Dye‐Sensitized Solar Cells

Organic dyes have become widely used in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) because of their good performance, flexible structural modifications, and low costs. To increase the photostability of organic dye-based DSSCs, we conducted a full study on the degradation mechanism of cyanoacrylic acid-based organic sensitizers in DSSCs. The results showed that with the synergy between water and UV light, the sensitizer could desorb from the TiO2 surface and the cyanoacrylic acid unit of the sensitizer was transformed into the aldehyde group. It was also observed that the water content had a great effect on the degradation process. Our experiments conducted using (18) O-labeled water demonstrated that the oxygen atom of the aldehyde group identified in the degraded dye came from the solvent water in the DSSCs. Therefore, controlling the water content during DSSC fabrication, good sealing of cells, and filtering the UV light are crucial to produce DSSCs that are more durable and robust.

Efficient Dye‐Sensitized Solar Cells Based on Hydroquinone/Benzoquinone as a Bioinspired Redox Couple

A hybrid electrolyte involving tetramethylammonium (TMA) hydroquinone/benzoquinone redox couple is formulated. This electrolyte is more transparent than the traditional I(-)/I(3)(-) electrolyte and has negligible absorption in the visible region. Dye-sensitized solar cells using the hybrid electrolyte show higher light-to-electricity conversion efficiency. FTO=fluorine-doped tin oxide.

Efficient Panchromatic Organic Sensitizers with Dihydrothiazole Derivative as π-Bridge for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

Novel organic dyes CC201 and CC202 with dihydrothiazole derivative as π-bridge have been synthesizedand applied in the DSSCs. With the synergy electron-withdrawing of dihydrothiazole and cyanoacrylic acid, these two novel dyes CC201 and CC202 show excellent response in the region of 500-800 nm. An efficiency as high as 6.1% was obtained for the device fabricated by sensitizer CC202 together with cobalt electrolyte under standard light illumination (AM 1.5G, 100 mW cm(-2)). These two novel D-π-A panchromatic organic dyes gave relatively high efficiencies except common reported squaraine dyes.

Engineering of hole-selective contact for low temperature-processed carbon counter electrode-based perovskite solar cells

A cost-effective and solution processable hole transport material (HTM), TPDI (5,10,15-triphenyl-5H-diindolo[3,2-a:3′,2′-c]carbazole), was synthesized and explored as a hole selective contact material in low temperature (100 °C) and printable processed carbon counter electrode based perovskite solar cells (PSCs) for the first time. This material demonstrated excellent thermal stability, high hole mobility and appropriate energy level alignment with CH3NH3PbI3 and carbon, which make it a potentially excellent alternative interfacial material for PSCs. By interfacial engineering with doped TPDI, the energy barrier at the CH3NH3PbI3/carbon interface was efficiently eliminated. Dramatically enhanced power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 15.5% was afforded, which is comparable to or even better than that of the reference device with 2,2′,7,7′-tetrakis(N,N′-di-p-methoxyphenylamine)-9,9′-spirobifluorene (spiro-OMeTAD) as HTM under equivalent conditions. Besides, TPDI can also function well in its pristine form although the efficiency (13.6%) obtained is slightly lower than that with the device containing doped TPDI as the HTM. Moreover, these newly integrated noble metal-free, vacuum-free and cost effective PSCs exhibited excellent durability during the long term stability measurements for 30 days. The remarkable performance as well as dramatically reduced fabrication cost demonstrated by integrating TPDI as the HTM and cost effective commercial carbon as the cathode revealed their great potential in the scalable and practical application of PSCs.

Efficient Organic Dye‐Sensitized Solar Cells: Molecular Engineering of Donor–Acceptor–Acceptor cationic dyes

Three metal-free donor-acceptor-acceptor sensitizers with ionized pyridine and a reference dye were synthesized, and a detailed investigation of the relationship between the dye structure and the photophysical and photoelectrochemical properties and the performance of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) is described. The ionization of pyridine results in a red shift of the absorption spectrum in comparison to that of the reference dye. This is mainly attributable to the ionization of pyridine increasing the electron-withdrawing ability of the total acceptor part. Incorporation of the strong electron-withdrawing units of pyridinium and cyano acrylic acid gives rise to optimized energy levels, resulting in a large response range of wavelengths. When attached to TiO2 film, the conduction band of TiO2 is negatively shifted to a different extent depending on the dye. This is attributed to the electron recombination rate between the TiO2 film and the electrolyte being efficiently suppressed by the introduction of long alkyl chains and thiophene units. DSSCs assembled using these dyes show efficiencies as high as 8.8 %.

Efficient dye-sensitized solar cells with [copper(6,6′-dimethyl-2,2′-bipyridine)2]2+/1+ redox shuttle

The [copper(6,6′-dimethyl-2,2′-bipyridine)2]2+/1+ ([Cu(dmbp)2]2+/1+) redox couple, which possesses a distorted tetragonal geometry of a Cu(I) complex crystal and a distorted tetrahedral coordination geometry of Cu(II) complex crystal, has been developed as a redox mediator in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The energy of loss for dye regeneration was reduced with a very low but sufficient driving force of only 0.11 eV. A distinct increase in open-circuit voltage (VOC) was achieved and a remarkable power conversion efficiency of 10.3% was afforded at 100 mW cm−2 under AM 1.5G condition.

Efficient Organic Sensitizers with Pyridine‐N‐oxide as an Anchor Group for Dye‐Sensitized Solar Cells

Five organic dyes with pyridine-N-oxide as the anchor group and electron acceptor have been synthesized and applied in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Benzothiadiazole was introduced in the conjugation system to increase the electron withdrawing properties, FTIR spectra showed that the coordination was between the pyridine-N-oxide and the Brønsted acid site on the TiO2 surface. The relationship between different dye structures and the performance of the DSSCs was investigated systematically. The location of the thiophene unit was studied, and the direct linkage of benzothiadiazole with pyridine-N-oxide was beneficial to broaden the absorption. The donor-acceptor-acceptor-configured dye WL307, which has 2-ethylhexyloxy chains in the donor part, showed the best efficiency of 6.08% under 100 mW cm(-2) light illumination. The dye series showed a fairly good stability during the one month test period.

Dye-sensitized solar cells based on hydroquinone/benzoquinone as bio-inspired redox couple with different counter electrodes.

In the present study, tetramethylammonium hydroquinone (HQ)/benzoquinone (BQ) were developed for use as a redox couple, with poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) and multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNT) being proposed for use as counter electrode (CE) catalysts in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Both metal-complex N719 and metal-free organic dye CM309 were employed to fabricate devices. For the devices sensitized by N719, when using PEDOT and MWNT CEs, power conversion efficiencies (PCE) of 5.2 and 4.9% were obtained, respectively, which were much higher than that of the device using the traditional Pt CE (4.7%) when HQ/BQ electrolyte was employed. However, with the HQ/BQ redox shuttle, the efficiency of the devices sensitized by N719 is much lower than that of the devices when the traditional I(-)/I3(-) based electrolyte and Pt CE were employed (7.9%). While for the CM309 sensitized solar cells, when the HQ/BQ redox shuttle was employed, PEDOT and MWNT performed much better than Pt, the DSSC using the PEDOT CE showed an efficiency of 6.2%, which was close to that of the DSSC using the traditional I(-)/I3(-) electrolyte and Pt CE (6.3%).