Issue 38, 2016

Bis(1,1-bis(2-pyridyl)ethane)copper(i/ii) as an efficient redox couple for liquid dye-sensitized solar cells

Abstract

A new redox couple, [Cu(bpye)2]+/2+, has been synthesized, and applied in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Overall efficiencies of 9.0% at 1 sun and 9.9% at 0.5 sun were obtained, which are considerably higher than those obtained for cells containing the reference redox couple, [Co(bpy)3]2+/3+. These results represent a record for copper-based complex redox systems in liquid DSSCs. Fast dye regeneration, sluggish recombination loss processes, faster electron self-exchange reactions and suitable redox potentials are the main reasons for the observed increase in efficiency. In particular, the main disadvantage of cobalt complex-based redox couples, charge-transport problems, appears to be resolved by a change to copper complex redox couples. The results make copper complex-based redox couples very promising for further development of highly efficient DSSCs.

Graphical abstract: Bis(1,1-bis(2-pyridyl)ethane)copper(i/ii) as an efficient redox couple for liquid dye-sensitized solar cells

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Communication
Submitted
08 Aug 2016
Accepted
30 Aug 2016
First published
30 Aug 2016
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

J. Mater. Chem. A, 2016,4, 14550-14554

Bis(1,1-bis(2-pyridyl)ethane)copper(I/II) as an efficient redox couple for liquid dye-sensitized solar cells

J. Cong, D. Kinschel, Q. Daniel, M. Safdari, E. Gabrielsson, H. Chen, P. H. Svensson, L. Sun and L. Kloo, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2016, 4, 14550 DOI: 10.1039/C6TA06782D

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