Performance of zinc chlorophyll based molecules for dye sensitized solar cell

• Zinc chlorophyll materials have been synthesized.
• Zinc chlorophyll materials have been fully characterized.
• Performances of the materials were evaluated in DSSC.

In this study, we investigated the influence of long carbon chains in ester group of the zinc chlorophyll derivatives, zinc hexyl 3-devinyl-3-hydroxymethyl-pyropheophorbide-a (ZnChl-C6), zinc octadecyl 3-devinyl-3-hydroxymethyl-pyropheophorbide-a (ZnChl-C18), zinc dodecyl 3-devinyl-3-hydroxymethyl-pyropheophorbide-a (ZnChl-C12) and zinc methyl 3-devinyl-3-methylhydroxymethylpyropheophorbide-a (ZnChl-OH), on the DSSC performance. Photovoltaic performances were determined in the order of ZnChlC12 > ZnChlC18 > ZnChlC6 > ZnChlOH from J–V curves. The higher Jsc obtained from the ZnChl-C12 sensitizer could result from the presence of long alkyl chain which reduce the charge recombination rate and facilitate electron injection. However, it was observed to decrease in the DSSC performance with the presence of longer alkyl chains (>C12). It was understood from the obtained results, the length of the alkyl chains is directly affect the DSSC performance.

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