title: Phenoxazine Derivative Operates as an Efficient Surface-Grafted Molecular Relay to Enhance the Performance and Stability of CdS- and CdSe-Sensitized TiO2Solar Cells.
abstract: We report on a new phenoxazine derivative, 10-butyl-phenoxazine-3-carboxylic acid (BPCA), that we designed to operate as a molecular relay in semiconductor-sensitized solar cells (SSCs). After BPCA surface modification and in the presence of a cobalt-bipyridyl complex acting as a redox mediator, both TiO2/CdS/BPCA and TiO2/CdSe/BPCA SSCs exhibit enhanced photovoltaic performance and stability. In particular, the power conversion efficiencies of CdS and CdSe-based solar cells are improved by 90 % and 57 %, respectively. Furthermore, after 300 s the JSCof TiO2/CdS/BPCA SSCs is stabilized at 30 % of its initial value, while in the same time CdS-based devices retain only 1 % of their initial JSC. The origin of the improvement arises from the excellent electron-donating property of BPCA and its role as a powerful molecular relay in non-polysulfide based SSCs.
authors.affiliation: School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, 637371, Singapore, Singapore.|Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, NUSNNI-NanoCore, National University of Singapore, 117576, Singapore, Singapore.
authors.forename: Chao
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5093-7657
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, NUSNNI-NanoCore, National University of Singapore, 117576, Singapore, Singapore.
authors.forename: Xingzhu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, 637371, Singapore, Singapore.
authors.forename: Shasha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, 637371, Singapore, Singapore.
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Courté
authors.affiliation: School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, 637371, Singapore, Singapore.|Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ Paris 06, UMR 8232, Institut Parisien de Chimie Moléculaire, 75005, Paris, France.|CNRS, UMR 8232, Institut Parisien de Chimie Moléculaire, 75005, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Denis
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5081-3806
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Fichou
keywords: cadmium; energy conversion; redox chemistry; semiconductors; sensitizers; thin films