Synthesis, Characterization and Fabrication of TPA-Derivative Based Dye Sensitizer Using TiO2 Nanoparticles for DSSCs

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Date

2024-06

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Addis Ababa University

Abstract

Solar energy is a renewable energy source that can meet the world's growing energy demand, reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and replace fossil fuel energy. However, the production costs of silicon-based solar cells are still too high for them to compete with the conventional energy sources available on the market. Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) show to be an attractive choice with the potential for lowering production costs. To increase the efficiency of DSSCs, new sensitizer development is crucial. The donor (D)- spacer (π)-acceptor (A) framework offers appropriate molecular structures for molecular design that work as efficient light harvesters, and electron injection into the semiconductors of the sensitizers has a significant effect on the DSSCs' performance. This study was conducted to synthesized, fabricated, and analyzed TPA derivative of metal-free organic dye-sensitized solar cells using a novel approach that combined computationally with the Gaussian 09 W software program to calculate the optimal structure and electron distribution of the two synthesized dye molecules using density functional theory (DFT) at the B3LYP functional and 6-31G ++ (d, p) basic set levels and experimental methods (Suzuki-Miyaura coupling reaction and Knoevenagel condensation).The dye FG1 (4'-(diphenylamino)-[1,1'-biphenyl]-4-carboxylicacid) & FG2 ((E)-2-cyano-3-(4' (diphenylamino)-[1,1'-biphenyl]-4-yl) acrylic acid) TPA derivative-based solar cell device offered the VOC, JSC, fill factor (%FF) characteristics of (0.55, 0.57) V, (3.75,13.35) mA/cm2, and (42.81, 27.04), respectively. It was shown that solar cells made from the anchoring group carboxylic acid (FG1) produced a PCE of 0.88 %. Similarly, devices (FG2) with a PCE of 2.10% were built from the cyanoacetic acid anchoring group due to better structural geometry, Photon absorption and efficiency have been increased by the addition of the cyanogroup and the double bond, as confirmed by UV-Vis’s absorption, NMR and FTIR spectra. Based on the various anchoring groups, energy gaps showed that the studied molecules' energy gaps, FG1 and FG2, are 3.34 and 2.62 eV, respectively. Hence, this study showed that the cyanoacetic acid anchoring group can improve the semiconductor TiO2 nanoparticle's efficiency and charge transfer.

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Keywords

DSSCs, DFT, D–π–A, TPA, TiO2, Solar Energy

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