Investigation of the π-Spacer through Synthesis and Characterization of Phenothiazine Dyes for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells
Master thesis
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http://hdl.handle.net/11250/2615654Utgivelsesdato
2018Metadata
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- Institutt for kjemi [1401]
Sammendrag
The search for new ways of harvesting energy from the sun led to developmentof dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) by O Regan and Grätzel in 1991.These solar cells are built up by a nanoporous semiconductor, a dye that is sensitizedonto the aforementioned semiconductor, and an electrolyte acting as aredox shuttle. Calculations performed by Venkatraman et al. at NTNU, presentphenothiazine dyes as promising candidates for DSSC. A series of dyes, theMFV2/DMA1-series, has been synthesized where the structure element knownas the π-bridge is being varied. The π-bridges influence the region where thedye can absorb light, and the excited dye s ability to inject electrons to the conductingband of the semiconductor.Two novel dyes for DSSC, DMA1-3 and DMA1-4, has been synthesized. Followinga five-step synthesis, DMA1-3 was synthesized in a total yield of 31%.The seven-step synthesis of DMA1-4 was performed in a total yield of 20%, theπ-bridge building block for this dye was synthesized in a five-step process inyields of 1-4%. The novel dyes DMA1-3 and DMA1-4 were characterized asdyes for DSSC, along with 5 other dyes synthesized previously in the researchgroup by master student Vold and the author. The dye DMA1-1 displayed thebest DSSC-performance, with a short-circuit current density of 8.88 mA cm−2leading to a power conversion efficiency of 3.90% under solar simulation withAM 1.5 G conditions.