Designing Squaraines to Control Charge Injection and Recombination Processes in NiO-based Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells.

Herein, the synthesis of a new family of squaraines (SQs) and their application in p-type dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) is presented. In particular, two sets of SQs were designed featuring either two or four anchoring carboxylic groups combined with either oxygen or dicyanovinyl central groups. The SQs were characterized by using a joint theoretical, photophysical, and electrochemical approach. Importantly, the presence of different central groups forces a frozen cis (dicyanovinyl group) or a trans (oxygen group) SQ conformation. Based on the latter, the current work enables a direct comparison between cis and trans isomers as well as the impact of a different number of anchors. Considering their electron-accepting and light-harvesting character, they were tested in NiO-based DSSCs. Photocurrent-voltage, incident photon-to-current conversion efficiency (IPCE), and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurements were performed. By virtue of their different symmetry, stereochemistry, and number of carboxylic groups, altered adsorption behavior onto NiO electrodes as well as diverse charge injection and charge recombination dynamics were noted under operation conditions. SQs with four linkers in a frozen cis isomerism show the best charge collection properties among the investigated SQs, providing a valuable guideline for the molecular design of future SQs for p-type DSSCs. In addition, we assembled tandem DSSCs featuring SQ/NiO photocathodes and N719/TiO2 photoanodes. The IPCE of the resulting tandem DSSCs implies light harvesting throughout most of the visible part of the solar spectrum owing to the complementary absorption features of SQ and N719.

High-Throughput Preparation of New Photoactive Nanocomposites.

New low-cost photoactive hybrid materials based on organic luminescent molecules inserted into hydrotalcite (layered double hydroxides; LDH) were produced, which exploit the high-throughput liquid-assisted grinding (LAG) method. These materials are conceived for applications in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) as a co-absorbers and in silicon photovoltaic (PV) panels to improve their efficiency as they are able to emit where PV modules show the maximum efficiency. A molecule that shows a large Stokes' shift was designed, synthesized, and intercalated into LDH. Two dyes already used in DSSCs were also intercalated to produce two new nanocomposites. LDH intercalation allows the stability of organic dyes to be improved and their direct use in polymer melt blending. The prepared nanocomposites absorb sunlight from UV to visible and emit from blue to near-IR and thus can be exploited for light-energy management. Finally one nanocomposite was dispersed by melt blending into a poly(methyl methacrylate)-block-poly(n-butyl acrylate) copolymer to obtain a photoactive film.

Terpyridine and Quaterpyridine Complexes as Sensitizers for Photovoltaic Applications.

Terpyridine and quaterpyridine-based complexes allow wide light harvesting of the solar spectrum. Terpyridines, with respect to bipyridines, allow for achieving metal-complexes with lower band gaps in the metal-to-ligand transition (MLCT), thus providing a better absorption at lower energy wavelengths resulting in an enhancement of the solar light-harvesting ability. Despite the wider absorption of the first tricarboxylate terpyridyl ligand-based complex, Black Dye (BD), dye-sensitized solar cell (DSC) performances are lower if compared with N719 or other optimized bipyridine-based complexes. To further improve BD performances several modifications have been carried out in recent years affecting each component of the complexes: terpyridines have been replaced by quaterpyridines; other metals were used instead of ruthenium, and thiocyanates have been replaced by different pinchers in order to achieve cyclometalated or heteroleptic complexes. The review provides a summary on design strategies, main synthetic routes, optical and photovoltaic properties of terpyridine and quaterpyridine ligands applied to photovoltaic, and focuses on n-type DSCs.

Microwave-Assisted Synthesis of Near-Infrared Fluorescent Indole-Based Squaraines.

A microwave-assisted method for the preparation of a wide color range of 2,3,3-trimethylindolenine-based squaraines and their intermediates is described. This practical approach allows the rapid preparation of both symmetrical and nonsymmetrical squaraine dyes, reducing reaction time from days to minutes with more than 2-fold improvement in product yields when compared to conventional methods.