Zinc phthalocyanines as light harvesters for SnO2-based solar cells: a case study

Year: 2020

Authors: Milan R., Selopal GS., Cavazzini M., Orlandi S., Boaretto R., Caramori S., Concina I., Pozzi G.

Autors Affiliation: Univ Brescia, Dept Informat Engn, Via Valotti 9, I-25131 Brescia, Italy; CNR INO Sensor Lab, Via Branze 45, I-25123 Brescia, Italy; Univ Elect Sci & Technol China, Inst Fundamental & Frontier Sci, Chengdu 610054, Peoples R China; Ctr Energie Mat & Telecommun, Inst Natl Rech Sci, 1650 Boul Lionel Boulet, Varennes, PQ J3X 1S2, Canada; ISTM CNR, Inst Mol Sci & Technol, Via Golgi 19, I-20133 Milan, Italy; Univ Ferrara, Dept Chem & Pharmaceut Sci, Via Borsari 46, I-44121 Ferrara, Italy; Lulea Univ Technol, Dept Engn Sci & Math, Div Mat Sci, S-97187 Lulea, Sweden.

Abstract: SnO2 nanoparticles have been synthesized and used as electron transport material (ETM) in dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), featuring two peripherally substituted push-pull zinc phthalocyanines (ZnPcs) bearing electron donating diphenylamine substituents and carboxylic acid anchoring groups as light harvesters. These complexes were designed on the base of previous computational studies suggesting that the integration of secondary amines as donor groups in the structure of unsymmetrical ZnPcs might enhance photovoltaics performances of DSSCs. In the case of TiO2-based devices, this hypothesis has been recently questioned by experimental results. Herein we show that the same holds for SnO2, despite the optimal matching of the optoelectronic characteristics of the synthesized nanoparticles and diphenylamino-substituted ZnPcs, thus confirming that other parameters heavily affect the solar cells performances and should be carefully taken into account when designing materials for photovoltaic applications.

Journal/Review: SCIENTIFIC REPORTS

Volume: 10 (1)      Pages from: 1176-1  to: 1176-9

More Information: The present work has been supported by the CNR/Regione Lombardia project Integrated Zero Emission Buildings. IC thanks VINNOVA under the VINNMER Marie Curie Incoming project Light Energy (Li -En) No. 2015-01513 for partial funding.
KeyWords: Mesoporous Tin Oxide; One-step Synthesis; Unsymmetrical Phthalocyanines; Electron-transport; Charge-transport; Dye Aggregation; Sno2; Efficiency; Layer; Performance
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-58310-1

Citations: 11
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