title: Influence of the Terminal Electron Donor in D-D-π-A Organic Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells: Dithieno[3,2-b:2',3'-d]pyrrole versus Bis(amine).
abstract: With respect to the electron-withdrawing acceptors of D-A-π-A organic dyes, reports on the second electron-donating donors for D-D-π-A organic dyes are very limited. Both of the dyes have attracted significant attention in the field of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs). In this work, four new D-D-π-A organic dyes with dithieno[3,2-b:2',3'-d]pyrrole (DTP) or bis(amine) donor have been designed and synthesized for a investigation of the influence of the terminal electron donor in D-D-π-A organic dye-sensitized solar cells. It is found that DTP is a promising building block as the terminal electron donor when introduced in the dithiophenepyrrole direction, but not just a good bridge, which exhibits several characteristics: (i) efficiently increasing the maximum molar absorption coefficient and extending the absorption bands; (ii) showing stronger charge transfer interaction as compared with the pyrrole direction; (iii) beneficial to photocurrent generation of DSCs employing cobalt electrolytes. DSCs based on M45 with the Co-phen electrolyte exhibit good light-to-electric energy conversion efficiencies as high as 9.02%, with a short circuit current density (JSC) of 15.3 mA cm(-2), open circuit voltage (VOC) of 867 mV and fill factor (FF) of 0.68 under AM 1.5 illumination (100 mW cm(-2)). The results demonstrate that N,S-heterocycles such as DTP unit could be promising candidates for application in highly efficient DSCs employing cobalt electrolyte.
authors.affiliation: Tianjin Key Laboratory of Organic Solar Cells and Photochemical Conversion, Department of Applied Chemistry, Tianjin University of Technology , Tianjin 300384, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Panpan
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dai
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences No. 5625, Ren Min Street, Changchun 130022, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Tianjin Key Laboratory of Organic Solar Cells and Photochemical Conversion, Department of Applied Chemistry, Tianjin University of Technology , Tianjin 300384, People's Republic of China.|Key Laboratory of Advanced Energy Materials Chemistry (Ministry of Education), Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering, College of Chemistry, Nankai University , Tianjin 300071, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Mao
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: Tianjin Key Laboratory of Organic Solar Cells and Photochemical Conversion, Department of Applied Chemistry, Tianjin University of Technology , Tianjin 300384, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Huanhuan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Polymer Physics and Chemistry Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences No. 5625, Ren Min Street, Changchun 130022, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Peng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Tianjin Key Laboratory of Organic Solar Cells and Photochemical Conversion, Department of Applied Chemistry, Tianjin University of Technology , Tianjin 300384, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Chunyao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Tianjin Key Laboratory of Organic Solar Cells and Photochemical Conversion, Department of Applied Chemistry, Tianjin University of Technology , Tianjin 300384, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Zhe
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Tianjin Key Laboratory of Organic Solar Cells and Photochemical Conversion, Department of Applied Chemistry, Tianjin University of Technology , Tianjin 300384, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Song
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Xue
keywords: D−D−π−A organic dyes; dithieno[3,2-b:2′,3′-d]pyrrole; dye-sensitized solar cells; electron donor; photovoltaic performance