A planar dithiafulvene based sensitizer forming J-aggregates on TiO2 photoanode to enhance the performance of dye-sensitized solar cells.
writer：J. Cheng, F. Zhang, K. Li, J. Li, X. Q. Lu, J. X. Zheng, K. P. Guo, S. H. Yang, Q. C. Dong.
keywords：Dye-sensitized solar cells; Planar dithiafulvene; J-aggregates; Surface engineering; Light harvesting; Electron recombination
source：期刊
specific source：Dyes Pigments
Issue time：2017年
A newly planar dithiafulvene sensitizer (DTF-C4) trending to form J-aggregates on the surface of mesoporous TiO2 by simply rinsing with a poor solvent acetonitrile was synthesized. We further show that the self-assembled J-aggregates optimized the TiO2surface utilization, enhanced the light harvesting ability by broadening and red-shifting the absorption, and suppressed the electron recombination, thereby significantly promoting the solar cell efficiency. Compared to the photoanode surface modified with DTF-C4 and the classical coadsorbent chenodeoxycholic acid (CDCA), the DSC based the DTF-C4compact J-aggregates exhibited a dramatically improved performance without the loss of adsorbed dyes, uplifting the power conversion efficiency from 4.68% to 7.48% alongside with a high open-circuit voltage of above 850 mV, which is higher than that of the commercial N719-based cell (770 mv).