Theoretical study of novel porphyrin-based dye for efficient dye-sensitized solar cell

ABSTRACT

In this study, novel porphyrin-based dye sensitizer with diphenylamine (DPA) as the electron donating group, isoindigo (II) as the electron withdrawing group, and carboxylic acid (CA) with benzene as the anchoring part (YD2-II-CA) were theoretically investigated in comparison with the recent best dye (YD2-o-C8). Density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) calculations were used to gain insight into the factors responsible for photovoltaic performance. Due to the substitution of the electron withdrawing unit, the absorption spectra of YD2-II-CA was more red-shifted and broader than the spectrum of the YD2-o-C8. The results suggest that this novel porphyrin-based dye would have good photovoltaic properties in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs)

KEYWORDS:

• Porphyrin
• dye-sensitized solar cell
• DSSC
• DFT
• TDDFT

Funding

This research was supported by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (2010-0021668).