Interfacial Structures of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell Working Electrodes

The transparent and low-cost nature of dye-sensitised solar cells (DSCs) affords them niche prospects for electricity-generating windows in buildings for energy-sustainable future cities. Despite their vast industrial potential, innovation is being held up by a lack of suitable dyes. Better dyes can only be realised if we can better understand how the dye...TiO2 interface of a working electrode in a DSC functions at the molecular level. To this end, we propose to exploit neutron contrast matching through selective deuteration to study the interfacial structure (dye adsorption modes, interdye separation and dye/TiO2 tilt angles) of self-assembled dyes on TiO2 surfaces to uncover the structural origin of the photovoltaic enhancement of the associated device. We will study five dye...TiO2 working electrodes, where the dye is one of five commercially-used Ru-basedorganometallic complexes.

染料敏化太阳能电池（dye-sensitised solar cells, DSCs）兼具透明性与低成本特性，使其在面向能源可持续未来城市的建筑发电玻璃窗领域拥有利基应用前景。尽管其具备巨大的工业应用潜力，但相关技术创新却因缺乏适配性染料而受阻。唯有在分子层面深入理解染料敏化太阳能电池工作电极中染料-二氧化钛界面的作用机制，我们才能研发出更优质的染料。为此，我们提出通过选择性氘代技术开展中子衬度匹配实验，以研究二氧化钛表面自组装染料的界面结构（包括染料吸附模式、染料间间距以及染料与二氧化钛的倾斜角），从而揭示对应器件光伏性能提升的结构本源。本次研究将针对五组染料-二氧化钛工作电极展开，其中所使用的染料均为五种商业化应用的钌基金属有机配合物之一。