Iodine-free organic dye sensitized solar cells with in situ polymerized hole transporting material from alkoxy-substituted TriEDOT

Abstract

An alkoxy-substituted ethylenedioxythiophene (EDOT) trimer is designed and synthesized which has shown a low oxidation potential of 0.50 V versus saturated calomel electrode (SCE). In situ polymerization of the trimer in a thin layer electrolytic cell using organic dye adsorbed on TiO 2 as the working electrode yielded alkoxy-substituted poly(ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT). With D149 as the dye sensitizer and the in situ polymerized polymer as hole-transporting material (HTM), dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) were fabricated to show a typical power conversion efficiency of 3.97% under AM 1.5 G (100 mW cm -2) illumination. The results show good promise of in situ polymerized conjugated polymers as HTM for iodine/iodide redox-free DSSC applications. © Springer-Verlag 2011.