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The Development of Highly Fluorescent Hemicyanine and Dicyanoisophorone Dyes for Applications in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells

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Abstract

Ruthenium-based metal complex dyes have been employed extensively in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) as photosensitizers, but the cost and toxicity of metal complexes have promoted the development of metal-free organic dyes. The present investigation deals with the synthesis of hemicyanine and Dicyanoisophorone (DCI) based dyes adopting the D-π-A strategy, and their application on sensitization of nano-crystalline ZnO electrodes by appending the carboxyl (COOH) anchoring group as a pendant on the primary skeleton of dyes. Dyes have been characterized by UV, FTIR, and NMR spectroscopic studies. Absorption maxima (λmax) were found in the region 416-551 nm while emission wavelength (λem) was observed in the range 575-685 nm. Cyclic voltammetry and DFT calculations were used to estimate redox potential and band gap energies of dyes.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the research grant from Higher Education Commission of Pakistan under the project No. NRPU-I/10579.

Funding

This work was funded by Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan vide project number NRPU-I/10579.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Quaid-I-Azam University, Islamabad, 45320, Pakistan

    Ghulam Shabir, Sama Arooj & Aamer Saeed

  2. U.S.-Pakistan Centre for Advanced Studies in Energy (USPCAS-E), National University of Sciences & Technology (NUST), H-12 Sector (44000), Islamabad, Pakistan

    Ahad Hussain Javed, Nadia Shahzad & Naseem Iqbal

  3. Department of Chemistry, Allama Iqbal Open University, H-8, Islamabad, 44000, Pakistan

    Erum Jabeen

  4. Department of Chemistry, Govt. Gordon College Rawalpindi, Rawalpindi, Pakistan

    Ghulam Shabir

Authors
  1. Ghulam Shabir
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  2. Sama Arooj
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  3. Ahad Hussain Javed
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  4. Aamer Saeed
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  5. Nadia Shahzad
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  6. Naseem Iqbal
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  7. Erum Jabeen
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Contributions

G. Shabir and S. Arooj has designed the work and conducted the synthesis of compounds while A. Saeed has characterized the dyes by UV and NMR studies. AH Javed, N. Shahzad and N. Iqbal conducted the application of for DSSCs. E. Jabeen Performed the DFT calculations.

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Correspondence to Ghulam Shabir.

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Research Highlights

• Design and synthesis of Fluorescent Hemicyanine and Isophorone based Photosensitizers.

• Medium to very large Stokes Shift values.

• Emission spanned over visible to NIR window I.

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Shabir, G., Arooj, S., Javed, A.H. et al. The Development of Highly Fluorescent Hemicyanine and Dicyanoisophorone Dyes for Applications in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells. J Fluoresc 32, 799–815 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10895-021-02873-3

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