Phenothiazine-Sensitized Solar Cells: Effect of Number of Cyanocinnamic Acid Anchoring Groups on Dye-Sensitized Solar...

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) were built to probe the effect of the number of cyanocinnamic acid anchoring groups on the ring periphery of phenothiazine dyes. Two kinds of dyes, one with substitution on the N-terminal (1) and the other at the C-3 aromatic ring (2-5), have been synthesized for this purpose. Additionally, the number of cyanocinnamic acid groups have been increased to two in the case of compound 6. In the case of compounds 2-6, the N terminus was functionalized to carry methyl, 2-hydroxyethane, tris(ethylene oxide), or hexyl groups. Evidence for charge injection from the excited singlet state of phenothiazine to TiO₂ was secured from femtosecond transient absorption spectral studies, wherein an ultrafast charge injection process (k_CI ≈10¹⁰ -10¹¹  s^-1 ) was witnessed. The DSSCs were built on nanocrystalline TiO₂ by using the traditional two-electrode method. Cell performance was better for carbon-functionalized phenothiazine dyes compared with that of nitrogen-functionalized dyes. The second cyanocinnamic group also increased the efficiency to 5.8 %.