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Heterocyclic azodyes as pigments for dye sensitized solar cells – A combined experimental and theoretical study

J. LUNGU1, C.I. OPREA1, A. DUMBRAVĂ2, I. ENACHE2,3, A. GEORGESCU1, C. RĂDULESCU4, I. IONIŢĂ4, G.V. CIMPOCA4, M. A. GÎRŢU1,*

Affiliation

  1. Department of Physics, Ovidius University of Constanţa, Constanţa 900527, Romania
  2. Department of Chemistry, Ovidius University of Constanţa, Constanţa 900527, Romania
  3. Department of Mathematics and Sciences, Constanţa Maritime University, Constanţa 900663 Romania
  4. Department of Sciences, Valahia University, Târgovişte 130024, Romania

Abstract

We report the results of a combined experimental and theoretical study of four azodyes, derived from three different heterocyclic systems, which we used as sensitizers for TiO2 dye-sensitized solar cells. Although the efficiencies are relatively low, of up to 0.19%, the fill factors are competitive, with values of up to 0.74. To better understand the large differences in the overall photovoltaic conversion efficiency between the four dyes we performed DFT calculations to determine the energy levels of the ground and excited states of the pigments. We explain the experimental results based on the energy level alignment with respect to the TiO2 substrate and the electrolyte..

Keywords

Dye-sensitized solar cells, Photovoltaic conversion efficiency, TiO2, azodyes, Density functional theory.

Submitted at: Aug. 2, 2010
Accepted at: Sept. 15, 2010

Citation

J. LUNGU, C.I. OPREA, A. DUMBRAVĂ, I. ENACHE, A. GEORGESCU, C. RĂDULESCU, I. IONIŢĂ, G.V. CIMPOCA, M. A. GÎRŢU, Heterocyclic azodyes as pigments for dye sensitized solar cells – A combined experimental and theoretical study, Journal of Optoelectronics and Advanced Materials Vol. 12, Iss. 9, pp. 1969-1975 (2010)