Enhanced DSSC performance with tri-pyridine-ruthenium heteropolytungstate

• Tri-bipyridine-ruthenium (II) heteropolytungstate has been first used as a photoanode in DSSC.
• Doping compound 1 into TiO2 has improved the short-circuit photocurrent density in DSSC.
• Compound 1 shows better photoelectric properties.

In this paper, we load TiO2 on the surface of the tri-pyridine-ruthenium heteropolytungstate [Ru(bipy)3]2[SiW12O40]·2C2H5OH·8H2O (1), which is mixed with P25 powder to get photoanode material and then adsorb N719 dyes to assemble a dye-sensitized solar cell. It is important that the performance of the DSSCs with 1-doped TiO2 (1 @ TiO2) is superior to ones with H4SiW12O40-doped TiO2 ({SiW12} @ TiO2), although their photoelectric conversion efficiencies are both higher than pure P25-based cells. The investigation of the EIS shows that 1 @ TiO2 can restrain charge recombination and doping the transition metal ruthenium improves the performance of the cell. The photovoltaic performance of the cell is enhanced and the short-circuit photocurrent density (Jsc) is as high as 16.272 mA cm− 2, which is 20.4% higher than pure P25-based cells and 4.4% higher than the {SiW12} @ TiO2-based cells under simulated AM 1.5 irradiation.

Tri-bipyridine-ruthenium heteropolytungstate has been successfully doped into TiO2 as photoanode in dye-sensitized, which improved the short-circuit photocurrent density (16.272 mA· m− 2) and open circuit voltage (704 mV).Figure optionsDownload as PowerPoint slide