title: Dye regeneration kinetics in dye-sensitized solar cells.
abstract: The ideal driving force for dye regeneration is an important parameter for the design of efficient dye-sensitized solar cells. Here, nanosecond laser transient absorption spectroscopy was used to measure the rates of regeneration of six organic carbazole-based dyes by nine ferrocene derivatives whose redox potentials vary by 0.85 V, resulting in 54 different driving-force conditions. It was found that the reaction follows the behavior expected for the Marcus normal region for driving forces below 29 kJ mol(-1) (ΔE = 0.30 V). Driving forces of 29-101 kJ mol(-1) (ΔE = 0.30-1.05 V) resulted in similar reaction rates, indicating that dye regeneration is diffusion controlled. Quantitative dye regeneration (theoretical regeneration yield 99.9%) can be achieved with a driving force of 20-25 kJ mol(-1) (ΔE ≈ 0.20-0.25 V).
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry and ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science, Monash University, Victoria 3800, Australia.
authors.forename: Torben
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Daeneke
authors.forename: Attila J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Mozer
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Uemura
authors.forename: Satoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Makuta
authors.forename: Monika
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fekete
authors.forename: Yasuhiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tachibana
authors.forename: Nagatoshi
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Koumura
authors.forename: Udo
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Bach
authors.forename: Leone
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Spiccia