title: Absorption spectra and photovoltaic characterization of chlorophyllins as sensitizers for dye-sensitized solar cells.
abstract: Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) based on Chlorine-e6 (Chl-e6), a Chlorophyll a derivative, and Chl-e6 containing Cu, have been investigated by carrying out incident photon to current efficiency (IPCE) and current-voltage (I-V) measurements. The effect of the metallic ion and the influence of the solvent polarity on the dye aggregation and their absorption bands have been analysed by performing electronic absorption measurements. The dependence of the photoelectrochemical parameters of these DSSCs on the electrolyte by the addition of pyrimidine and/or pyrrole has been discussed in details. For the first time I-V curves for a DSSC based on copper Chl-e6 dye have been shown and compared with Zn based chlorophyllin. Furthermore, the performance of a Cu-Chl-e6 based DSSC has been deeply improved by a progressive optimization of the TiO2 multilayer photoanode overcoming the best data reported in literature so far for this dye. It's worth to emphasize that, the analysis reported in this paper supplies very useful information which paves the way to further detailed studies turned to the employment of natural pigments as sensitizers for solar cells.
authors.affiliation: CNR-IPCF, Istituto per i Processi Chimico-Fisici, via F. Stagno D'Alcontres 37, I-98158 Messina, Italy. Electronic address: calogero@me.cnr.it.
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Calogero
authors.affiliation: CNR-IPCF, Istituto per i Processi Chimico-Fisici, via F. Stagno D'Alcontres 37, I-98158 Messina, Italy.
authors.forename: Ilaria
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Citro
authors.affiliation: CNR-IPCF, Istituto per i Processi Chimico-Fisici, via F. Stagno D'Alcontres 37, I-98158 Messina, Italy.
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Crupi
authors.affiliation: CNR-IPCF, Istituto per i Processi Chimico-Fisici, via F. Stagno D'Alcontres 37, I-98158 Messina, Italy.
authors.forename: Gaetano
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Di Marco
mesh_terms: D065966:Absorption, Physicochemical; D002735:Chlorophyllides / Q000737:chemistry*; D004396:Coloring Agents / Q000737:chemistry*; D004560:Electricity; D010777:Photochemistry; D012993:Solar Energy; D013057:Spectrum Analysis
chemical_list: D002735:Chlorophyllides; D004396:Coloring Agents; C007020:chlorophyllin
keywords: Chlorophyll derivatives; Chlorophyllins; Dye-sensitized solar cells; Natural dyes; Soret; Titanium oxide nanoparticles