posted on 2008-11-27, 00:00authored byRubén Caballero, Eva M. Barea, Francisco Fabregat-Santiago, Pilar de la Cruz, Lourdes Márquez, Fernando Langa, Juan Bisquert
A new metal-free sensitizer for improved light harvesting with dye-sensitized solar cells (DSC) has been synthesized and fully characterized. The molecular sensitizer was engineered by linking the tiophenes groups by methine units, improving light absorption until 760 nm wavelength. In conventional DSC configuration the dye produces short-circuit current density of 13.4 mA/cm2 at 1.5 AM illumination (100 mW cm−2) and the incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency (IPCE) of 58%. The causes for the limitation to the photocurrent are investigated by impedance spectroscopy measurements, and it is shown that metal-based and metal-free molecular sensitizers show distinct characteristics concerning the blocking of the TiO2 surface with coadsorbents to prevent electron recombination.