International Journal of
Physical Sciences

  • Abbreviation: Int. J. Phys. Sci.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN: 1992-1950
  • DOI: 10.5897/IJPS
  • Start Year: 2006
  • Published Articles: 2568

Full Length Research Paper

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) based on poly(3-hexylthioacetate thiophene)

Athanasius J. Manji1* and Patrick J. Murphy2
1Department of Chemistry, ModibboAdama University of Technology, P. M. B. 2076 Yola, Adamawa State, Nigeria. 2School of Chemistry, Bangor University, Bangor, Gwynedd, LL57 2UW, UK.
Email: [email protected]

  •  Accepted: 04 January 2013
  •  Published: 09 January 2013

Abstract

This work details the synthesis of a functionalized all-donor polymer, poly(3-hexylthioacetate thiophene) (P3HTT). The spectrophotometry analysis of the polymer showed absorption bands at 450 and 536 nm in the liquid and solid states, respectively with optical band gap ( QUOTE  ) of 1.9 eV. In addition, the polymer emits in the green region of the emission spectrum with photoluminescence (PL)  QUOTE   of 579 nm and 26% photoluminescence quantum yield (PL Φ). The highest occupiedmolecular orbital (HOMO) and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) energy levels of the polymer were found to be -5.05 and -2.9 eV, respectively. Dye-sensitized solar cells(DSSCs) devices based on this polymer were fabricated in combination with nano-crystalline titanium dioxide (nc-TiO2) and ruthenium 535-bis tetrabutylammonium (TBA) dye to give devices with the configuration, glass/SnO2:F/nc-TiO2/dye/polymer/Au. The best device showed power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 0.035% with Voc, Jsc and FF of 610 mV, 1.7 mA/cm2 and 34%, respectively.

 

Key words: Dye sensitized, all-donor polymer, band-gap, photoluminescence, quantum yield, ruthenium 535-bisTBA, photovoltaic.