title: Suitability of N-propanoic acid spiropyrans and spirooxazines for use as sensitizing dyes in dye-sensitized solar cells.
abstract: This work deals with the fabrication and evaluation of color-changing dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) that include N-propanoic acid-functionalized spiropyrans and spirooxazines as sensitizing dyes. We investigated the photophysical properties of these compounds in various solvents and pH conditions using UV-Vis spectroscopy, and their behavior on TiO2photoanode surfaces using a combination of UV-Vis and FT-IR. Their performance as sensitizing dyes for DSSCs was also analyzed. This study revealed a number of unique properties for this class of compounds that affect their performance as both photochromic compounds and DSSC sensitizers, which allow for future creation of efficient photochromic DSSCs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. hj56@drexel.edu.
authors.forename: Noah M
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
authors.forename: Yuriy Y
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Smolin
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. hj56@drexel.edu.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hagaman
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
authors.forename: Masoud
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Soroush
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
authors.forename: Kenneth K S
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Lau
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. hj56@drexel.edu.
authors.forename: Hai-Feng
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5450-0121
authors.initials: HF
authors.lastname: Ji