Enhanced performance of dye-sensitized solar cell using triazole based phenothiazine dendrimers as additives

Abstract

Phenothiazine dendritic architectures with 1,2,3-triazole as a bridging unit are synthesized through a convergent approach using click chemistry and when used as additives in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) show increased efficiency in solar energy harvesting systems. The presence of a greater number of phenothiazine and triazole units increased the molar absorption coefficient and fluorescence quantum yields. In DSSCs, the redox couple doped with first generation triazole based phenothiazine dendrimers showed a higher V_oc voltage through the suppression of back electron transfer and exhibited a better power conversion efficiency (η) of 8.6% under 70 mW cm⁻² irradiation than the zeroth generation dendrimers.