Molecular Electron Acceptor Designed by Modulating Quinoidal-Resonance Effect for Organic Solar Cell Application

Molecular engineering of organic sensitizers for solar cell applications.

Novel organic sensitizers comprising donor, electron-conducting, and anchoring groups were engineered at molecular level and synthesized. The functionalized unsymmetrical organic sensitizers 3-{5-[N,N-bis(9,9-dimethylfluorene-2-yl)phenyl]-thiophene-2-yl}-2-cyano-acrylic acid (JK-1) and 3-{5'-[N,N-bis(9,9-dimethylfluorene-2-yl)phenyl]-2,2'-bisthiophene-5-yl}-2-cyano-acrylic acid (JK-2), upon anc...

Isoindigo-Containing Molecular Semiconductors: Effect of Backbone Extension on Molecular Organization and Organic Solar Cell Performance

We have synthesized three new isoindigo-based small molecules by extending the conjugated length through the incorporation of octyl-thiophene units between the isoindigo core and benzothiophene terminal units. Both UV-vis and Grazing incidence X-ray diffraction experiments show that such extension of the π-conjugated backbone can induce H-aggregation, and enhance crystallinity and molecular ord...

Enhance performance of organic solar cells based on an isoindigo-based copolymer by balancing absorption and miscibility of electron acceptor

Electron Transfer in Dye-Sensitized Nanocrystalline TiO2 Solar Cell

The dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC) have been regarded as one of the most promising new generation solar cells. Tremendous research efforts have been invested to improve the efficiency of solar energy conversion which is generally determined by the light harvesting efficiency, electron injection efficiency and undesirable electron lifetime. In this review, various characteristics of dye-...

Molecular orientation studies by pulsed electron-electron double resonance experiments.

Pulsed electron-electron double resonance (PELDOR) has proven to be a valuable tool to measure the distribution of long range distances in noncrystalline macromolecules. These experiments commonly use nitroxide spin labels as paramagnetic markers that are covalently attached to the macromolecule at specific positions. Unless these spin labels are flexible in such a manner that they exhibit an a...